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• Every time that a piece of content is published, the work is published under the CC BY-SA version as defined above, based on the publish date.
• Every time a piece of content on the site is edited, the editor creates a new version of the previous version. The new version of that work is considered to be republished and therefore governed under the CC BY-SA version in effect as of the day on which the edit was made.
• Each revision to a work creates a new version and is licensed separately. Thus current version of any piece of content (that appears on the site) is the most recent revision, and will have a license version based on the date on which that revision was published.
• This applies regardless of the size, the magnitude, or the significance of the edit that was made. Note: rollback edits do not create new licensed versions, as they do not add any content to that which was already published.
• New edits do not modify the license that is attached to an old revision of the same content. That old revision continues to be licensed under its original CC BY-SA version.

So what changes are actually being made now?

1. The timeline for every question and answer has been updated.
2. The top of the timeline page (underneath the title of the post) lists the CC BY-SA version of the latest revision made to the post.
3. A new column labeled “license” has been added to the timeline table.
4. Each line in the timeline labeled as “history” where the action is “asked”, “answered”, or “edited” has the CC BY-SA version that is applied to the given revision.
5. Comment versions:
6. The tooltip on the comment date includes the license version applied to that comment on creation.
7. If a comment had multiple revisions, the revision display that is available to moderators gives the license version that applied to each revision of the comment.
8. Footer text, other references:
9. All references to the license throughout the site (including on the TOS) have been changed to “CC BY-SA” (or the same in lower-case).
10. Text requiring attribution is no longer written. This is implicit from the definition of the “BY” section of the license name.
11. The network footer has been updated to no longer reference version 4.0 of the license, and will now link to the /help/licensing page.
12. Other references to the license in other sections of the sites on the network have been updated in the same way.
13. Area 51 footer has been updated accordingly.
14. The create chat page has been updated accordingly.
15. The Public Terms of Service will be updated to use the correct format of "CC BY-SA" (instead of incorrect representations like "CC-BY-SA"). Current license version number (4.0) is included in text of the ToS (and not just in the link). A sentence will also be added to the licensing section making reference to this post to give more details on how licenses are applied to content.
16. API models include a new field called content_license that will return the license associated with that record:
17. Post
18. Question
19. Answer
20. Revision
21. Comment
22. Question_Timeline (type=revision)
23. Data Exports & SEDE
24. SEDE footer has been updated.
25. SEDE query details updated to show the license applicable to that query.
26. The following tables available on data.stackexchange.com will include (in the next refresh) a ContentLicense field: Posts, PostHistory and Comments.

As you can see from above, we have lots of updates here that just went live. If you see an area of the site that still needs to be updated, please let us know and we’ll get to it. We’re happy to hear any feedback you might have and will try to answer any questions as best as we can. However, please understand that we’re unable to provide any answers to questions about licensing that could possibly be interpreted as us giving legal advice.

• Every time that a piece of content is published, the work is published under the CC BY-SA version as defined above, based on the publish date.
• Every time a piece of content on the site is edited by a user, the editor creates a new version of the previous version. The new version of that work is considered to be republished and therefore governed under the CC BY-SA version in effect as of the day on which the edit was made.
• Each revision to a work creates a new version and is licensed separately. Thus current version of any piece of content (that appears on the site) is the most recent revision, and will have a license version based on the date on which that revision was published.
• This applies regardless of the size, the magnitude, or the significance of the edit that was made (except for the cases outlined below which are exceptions to this rule).
• New edits do not modify the license that is attached to an old revision of the same content. That old revision continues to be licensed under its original CC BY-SA version.

Are there any types of post edits that do not cause new licensed revisions or changes to the license on the post?

Yes, there are a few:

• Title or Body Rollbacks: do not create new licensed versions, as they do not add any content to that which was already published. The license on the post changes to the license on the rollback target revision.
• Tag applications to questions are considered to be meta-data and are not included in the content that is being licensed. Thus, tag-only edits or rollbacks do not effect any license changes or create new licensed versions
• The following system-initiated post edits do not create new licensed versions:
  • Commonmark migration edits
  • URL Rewrites
  • http to https replacements
  • MSO link to MSE link replacements
  • Insert/remove duplicate link edits

So what changes have been made?

1. The timeline for every question and answer has been updated.
   1. The top of the timeline page (underneath the title of the post) lists the CC BY-SA version of the latest revision made to the post.
   2. A new column labeled “license” has been added to the timeline table.
   3. Each line in the timeline labeled as “history” where the action is “asked”, “answered”, or “edited” has the CC BY-SA version that is applied to the given revision.
2. The share post popover now includes a link to the license version applied to the post (decorated with an rel="license" attribute)
3. Comment versions:
   1. The tooltip on the comment date includes the license version applied to that comment on creation.
   2. If a comment had multiple revisions, the revision display that is available to moderators gives the license version that applied to each revision of the comment.
4. Footer text, other references:
   1. All references to the license throughout the site (including on the TOS) have been changed to “CC BY-SA” (or the same in lower-case).
   2. Text requiring attribution is no longer written. This is implicit from the definition of the “BY” section of the license name.
   3. The network footer has been updated to no longer reference version 4.0 of the license, and will now link to the /help/licensing page.
   4. Other references to the license in other sections of the sites on the network have been updated in the same way.
   5. Area 51 footer has been updated accordingly.
   6. The create chat page has been updated accordingly.
   7. The Public Terms of Service has been updated to use the correct format of "CC BY-SA" (instead of incorrect representations like "CC-BY-SA"). Current license version number (4.0) is included in text of the ToS (and not just in the link). A sentence has been added to the licensing section making reference to this post to give more details on how licenses are applied to content.
5. API models include a new field called content_license that will return the license associated with that record:
   1. Post
   2. Question
   3. Answer
   4. Revision
   5. Comment
   6. Question_Timeline (type=revision)
6. Data Exports & SEDE
   1. SEDE footer has been updated.
   2. SEDE query details updated to show the license applicable to that query.
   3. The following tables available on data.stackexchange.com will include (in the next refresh) a ContentLicense field: Posts, PostHistory and Comments.

We’re happy to hear any feedback you might have and will try to answer any questions as best as we can. However, please understand that we’re unable to provide any answers to questions about licensing that could possibly be interpreted as us giving legal advice.

1. The timeline for every question and answer has been updated.
2. The top of the timeline page (underneath the title of the post) lists the CC BY-SA version of the latest revision made to the post.
3. A new column labeled “license” has been added to the timeline table.
4. Each line in the timeline labeled as “history” where the action is “asked”, “answered”, or “edited” has the CC BY-SA version that is applied to the given revision.
5. Comment versions:
6. The tooltip on the comment date includes the license version applied to that comment on creation.
7. If a comment had multiple revisions, the revision display that is available to moderators gives the license version that applied to each revision of the comment.
8. Footer text, other references:
9. All references to the license throughout the site (including on the TOS) have been changed to “CC BY-SA” (or the same in lower-case).
10. Text requiring attribution is no longer written. This is implicit from the definition of the “BY” section of the license name.
11. The network footer has been updated to no longer reference version 4.0 of the license, and will now link to the /help/licensing page.
12. Other references to the license in other sections of the sites on the network have been updated in the same way.
13. Area 51 footer has been updated accordingly.
14. The create chat page has been updated accordingly.
15. The Public Terms of Service will be updated to use the correct format of "CC BY-SA" (instead of incorrect representations like "CC-BY-SA"). A sentence will also be added to the licensing section making reference to this post to give more details on how licenses are applied to content. (Note: ToS changes are not yet live, this note will be removed once the changes are up)
16. API models include a new field called content_license that will return the license associated with that record:
17. Post
18. Question
19. Answer
20. Revision
21. Comment
22. Question_Timeline (type=revision)
23. Data Exports & SEDE
24. SEDE footer has been updated.
25. SEDE query details updated to show the license applicable to that query.
26. The following tables available on data.stackexchange.com will include (in the next refresh) a ContentLicense field: Posts, PostHistory and Comments.

1. The timeline for every question and answer has been updated.
2. The top of the timeline page (underneath the title of the post) lists the CC BY-SA version of the latest revision made to the post.
3. A new column labeled “license” has been added to the timeline table.
4. Each line in the timeline labeled as “history” where the action is “asked”, “answered”, or “edited” has the CC BY-SA version that is applied to the given revision.
5. Comment versions:
6. The tooltip on the comment date includes the license version applied to that comment on creation.
7. If a comment had multiple revisions, the revision display that is available to moderators gives the license version that applied to each revision of the comment.
8. Footer text, other references:
9. All references to the license throughout the site (including on the TOS) have been changed to “CC BY-SA” (or the same in lower-case).
10. Text requiring attribution is no longer written. This is implicit from the definition of the “BY” section of the license name.
11. The network footer has been updated to no longer reference version 4.0 of the license, and will now link to the /help/licensing page.
12. Other references to the license in other sections of the sites on the network have been updated in the same way.
13. Area 51 footer has been updated accordingly.
14. The create chat page has been updated accordingly.
15. The Public Terms of Service will be updated to use the correct format of "CC BY-SA" (instead of incorrect representations like "CC-BY-SA"). Current license version number (4.0) is included in text of the ToS (and not just in the link). A sentence will also be added to the licensing section making reference to this post to give more details on how licenses are applied to content.
16. API models include a new field called content_license that will return the license associated with that record:
17. Post
18. Question
19. Answer
20. Revision
21. Comment
22. Question_Timeline (type=revision)
23. Data Exports & SEDE
24. SEDE footer has been updated.
25. SEDE query details updated to show the license applicable to that query.
26. The following tables available on data.stackexchange.com will include (in the next refresh) a ContentLicense field: Posts, PostHistory and Comments.