Licensing & reuse
The NetSec website is published under a dual-licence model that lets you reuse the work freely, with one piece of mandatory attention: some parts are not ours to relicense. This page explains what's covered by what, and how to attribute reuse.
1. The dual-licence model at a glance
| What | Licence | You may… |
|---|---|---|
| Source code (HTML / CSS / JS, Python sync scripts, GitHub Actions) | MIT | Copy, modify, redistribute, commercially or not, provided the licence text travels with the copy. |
Site content (prose, page copy, documentation under docs/) |
CC BY 4.0 | Share and adapt, including commercially, provided you give appropriate credit and indicate any changes. |
| Member bios and photographs | © the individual contributors | Display them in the context of this site, with the contributor's consent. Not covered by the CC BY licence above. Contributors may request changes or removal at any time. |
| COST logo, EU emblem, NetSec wordmark | Trademarks of their respective holders | Use only in accordance with the COST Visual Identity Guide and the EU visual identity manual. |
| Third-party assets bundled with the site | Their own licences (see §3) | Use under the terms each upstream sets. |
2. Suggested attribution
If you reuse the prose content under CC BY 4.0, the briefest acceptable attribution is:
If you also modified the content, please indicate that you did so. There is no canonical wording for this, anything that makes clear the work is derivative is fine ("adapted from…", "based on the original…", etc.).
3. Third-party assets bundled with the site
Each retains its own licence. We list them here so anyone reusing the source code knows what travels with it:
- Simple Icons, brand marks for ORCID, LinkedIn, X, Bluesky, Mastodon. Licensed CC0 1.0. Brand-name trademarks are not relicensable.
- Lucide-style stroke glyphs, generic UI icons (envelope, briefcase, microphone, etc.). Licensed ISC.
- Inter and Lexend typefaces, loaded from Google Fonts. Both licensed under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
- FlagCDN, country flag thumbnails in the Management Committee by Country grid and on member cards. The flags themselves are public-domain national symbols; the CDN project is MIT-licensed.
- COST logo, © COST Association. Used per COST visual-identity guidance for funded Actions.
- EU emblem ("Funded by the European Union"), used per the European Union visual-identity manual for funding-statement communication.
4. Frequently asked
Can I republish a page from this site on my own blog?
Yes, under CC BY 4.0, with the attribution from §2. If the page contains member bios or photographs, you'll need the contributor's permission for those parts; the rest of the page can be reused freely.
Can I fork the source code and host my own COST Action site on it?
Yes, that's exactly what the MIT licence allows. Please replace the COST and EU branding with your own Action's, and update the privacy notice and accessibility statement to reflect your hosting and processing arrangements.
Can I translate the content into another language and publish it?
Yes, under the CC BY licence. Treat the translation as an adaptation and credit the original; the same attribution from §2 applies. We'd also welcome a courtesy heads-up via the contact form, especially if your translation might be useful to the Action itself.
Can I use NetSec member photographs in academic or press contexts?
Not without each pictured member's permission. The photographs are not under CC BY. Contact the member directly, or ask us to forward your request.
What about the underlying research, publications, and dataset outputs?
Those are not covered by this notice. Research outputs produced as part of NetSec are open-access under COST policy, but each individual publication carries its own copyright. See the Outputs section on the home page or the linked publishers' websites for the specific terms.
5. Where the licence text lives
The authoritative licence files in the repository:
LICENSE, the MIT licence text covering source code.LICENSE-CONTENT, the CC BY 4.0 notice with the full scope statement (third-party assets, contributor carve-out, trademarks).
If the page above and the licence files in the repository disagree on anything, the licence files in the repository are authoritative.
6. Contact for licensing questions
For permission requests beyond what the licences allow, ask via the contact form on the home page, mentioning "licensing" in your message.
Licensing notice v1.0 · prepared 18 May 2026 · separated from privacy.html on 18 May 2026.