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Licensing and Use Policy

The Saber Standard is intended to be open enough to spread, but controlled enough that the official source, name, marks, and certification remain protected.

Core principle: The knowledge is open. The official name, source, and certification are protected.

This page explains what people may do with public Saber Standard materials, what they must do when reusing them, and what requires written permission from Lumina Federation LLC.

Plain-language summary

You may use, teach, print, and adapt public Saber Standard reference materials with attribution, for non-commercial purposes, under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. You may not sell them or use them commercially without a separate licence, remove attribution, rebrand the Saber Standard as your own system, or imply official certification, endorsement, or affiliation without permission.

Public Materials License

Public-facing Saber Standard reference materials are made available under:

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

This applies to public educational materials such as:

  • target diagrams
  • translation sheets
  • notation guides
  • beginner handouts
  • written explanations
  • public instructional resources
  • public curriculum excerpts

Under this license, people may use, share, print, teach from, and adapt these materials for non-commercial purposes, provided they follow the attribution and ShareAlike requirements.

Commercial use is not granted by this license. Selling these materials, or reusing them in a commercial product or publication, requires a separate commercial license from Lumina Federation LLC.

What People May Do

Adapting is not rebranding

"Adapt" means adjusting terminology, examples, or formatting to fit local teaching — not printing Saber Standard materials with the attribution and license notice stripped and your school's name put in their place. Adaptations must still credit the Saber Standard, retain the license notice, and remain non-commercial, per What People Must Do below.

People, schools, clubs, chapters, and instructors may:

  • use public Saber Standard materials for education
  • teach from public Saber Standard reference materials
  • print Saber Standard handouts for students, visitors, or workshops
  • adapt the materials for local teaching needs
  • create school-specific mapping sheets that translate their local system into Saber Standard notation
  • say that their materials are adapted from, compatible with, or based on the Saber Standard

What People Must Do

Users of public Saber Standard materials must:

  • credit the Saber Standard
  • retain the license notice
  • link or refer back to the official Saber Standard source when practical
  • release adaptations under the same CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
  • keep their use non-commercial, unless granted a separate commercial license in writing by Lumina Federation LLC
  • avoid implying official certification, endorsement, or affiliation unless granted in writing by Lumina Federation LLC

Suggested attribution:

Adapted from the Saber Standard, developed and maintained by Lumina Federation LLC. SaberCraft.org is the founding school/community of the Saber Standard.

What Is Not Licensed Under Creative Commons

The Creative Commons license applies to public educational materials. It does not grant free use of brand identity, certification authority, or official endorsement language.

Official Certification and Endorsement

Schools may teach from open Saber Standard materials, but they may not claim to be official Saber Standard schools or authorized representatives unless granted written permission by Lumina Federation LLC.

Acceptable language:

Our school uses materials adapted from the Saber Standard.

This worksheet maps our local numbering system to Saber Standard target notation.

Not acceptable without written permission:

We are an official Saber Standard school.

We certify Saber Standard instructors.

This is the official Saber Standard curriculum.

Our version replaces the official Saber Standard.

Use this footer on public Saber Standard PDFs, worksheets, and reference sheets:

© 2026 Lumina Federation LLC. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Use does not imply endorsement, certification, or affiliation.

Why This Approach

The goal is not to lock the Saber Standard away. A standard only works if people can actually use it.

The goal is controlled openness:

  1. public reference materials remain usable and shareable
  2. attribution keeps the original source visible
  3. adaptations remain open under the same license
  4. official names, marks, badges, and certifications stay protected
  5. the official version remains anchored to Lumina Federation LLC and the public Saber Standard site

The Saber Standard should be easy to adopt honestly and difficult to rebrand dishonestly.

Permission Requests

For commercial use, official certification, logo use, commercial publication, formal school affiliation, or other uses not covered by this page, contact Lumina Federation LLC through the official SaberCraft or Saber Standard channels.