diff --git a/Documentation/doc/Documentation/Getting_started.txt b/Documentation/doc/Documentation/Getting_started.txt
index 23693a5189d..522dfa212d8 100644
--- a/Documentation/doc/Documentation/Getting_started.txt
+++ b/Documentation/doc/Documentation/Getting_started.txt
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*!
 \page general_intro Getting Started with %CGAL
 
-The following pages describe how to use \cgal on different environments
+The following pages describe how to use \cgal on different environments:
 
 - \subpage usage
 
@@ -11,19 +11,21 @@ The following pages describe how to use \cgal on different environments
 
 - \subpage devman_create_and_use_a_cmakelist explains how to use CMake to link a program with \cgal.
 
-The following pages cover advanced installation options
+The following pages cover advanced installation options:
 
 - \subpage configurationvariables gives information about which CMake variables can be used to help
 resolve missing dependencies while using the cmake command line tool.
 
 - \subpage installation describes the deprecated process of configuring and building \cgal.
 
-The following pages cover the structure of the manual and general information about \cgal
+The following pages cover the structure of the manual and general information about \cgal:
 
 - \subpage manual gives an idea of where you should look for documentation.
 
 - \subpage preliminaries lists how to control inlining, thread safety, code deprecation, checking
-of pre- and postconditions, and how to alter the failure behavior.
+of pre- and postconditions, how to alter the failure behavior, and how to check the version of \cgal.
+
+- \subpage license describes the different licenses used within \cgal, with which users must comply.
 
 Once you are familiar with building your programs with \cgal and how the documentation is structured,
 you can head over to the \ref tutorials for a gentle introduction to \cgal, or directly to the package(s)
diff --git a/Documentation/doc/Documentation/License.txt b/Documentation/doc/Documentation/License.txt
index 71ede23de25..cb272b4180f 100644
--- a/Documentation/doc/Documentation/License.txt
+++ b/Documentation/doc/Documentation/License.txt
@@ -2,18 +2,16 @@
 \page license License
 \cgalAutoToc
 
-\cgal is distributed under a dual license scheme, that is under the
-GNU GPL/LGPL open source license, as well as under commercial licenses.
-
-\cgal consists of different parts covered by different open source licenses.
-In this section we explain the essence of the different licenses, as well as
-the rationale why we have chosen them.
-
-The fact that \cgal is Open Source software does not mean that users are free
+The fact that \cgal is open source software does not mean that users are free
 to do whatever they want with the software. Using the software means to accept
 the license, which has the status of a contract between the user and the owner
 of the \cgal software.
 
+\cgal is distributed under a dual license scheme, that is under the
+GNU GPL/LGPL open source licenses, as well as under commercial licenses.
+We explain on this page the essence of the different licenses, as well as
+the rationale behind their choice.
+
 \section licensesGPL GNU GPL
 
 The GNU GPL is an Open Source license that, if you distribute your software
@@ -27,7 +25,7 @@ web site: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.
 
 The GNU LGPL is an Open Source license that obliges you to distribute
 modifications you make on \cgal software accessible to the users.
-In contrast to the GPL, there is no obligation to make the source
+In contrast to the GPL, there is no obligation to distribute the source
 code of software you build on top of LGPLed \cgal data structures.
 
 The exact license terms can be found at the Free Software Foundation web site:
@@ -69,36 +67,16 @@ To enable checking, users have to define one of the following macros:
 The license checking is not a mean to control users as no information
 is collected or transmitted.
 
-\section seccgal_version Identifying the Version of CGAL
+\section licensesWhere Determining the license of a CGAL file
 
-Every release of \cgal defines the following preprocessor macros:
+It is specified in each file of the \cgal library which license applies to it.
 
-<DL>
-<DT>`CGAL_VERSION_STR`</DT>
-<DD>a textual description of the current release (e.g., or 3.3 or 3.2.1 or 3.2.1-I-15) as a string literal</DD>
-<DT>`CGAL_VERSION_NR`</DT>
-<DD>a numerical description of the current release such that more recent
-releases have higher number.
+The \cgal documentation is distributed under the Creative Commons
+<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">CC BY-NC-ND 2.0</a> License.
 
-More precisely, it is defined as `1MMmmbiiii`, where `MM` is
-the major release number (e.g. 03), `mm` is the minor release
-number (e.g. 02), `b` is the bug-fix release number (e.g. 0),
-and `iiii` is the internal release number (e.g. 0001). For
-public releases, the latter is defined as 1000.  Examples: for the
-public release 3.2.4 this number is 1030241000; for internal release
-3.2-I-1, it is 1030200001.  Note that this scheme was modified around
-3.2-I-30.
-</DD>
-<DT>`CGAL_VERSION_NUMBER(M,m,b)`</DT>
-<DD>
-a function macro computing the version number macro from the
-M.m.b release version. Note that the internal release number is
-dropped here. Example: `CGAL_VERSION_NUMBER(3,2,4)` is equal to
-1030241000.
-</DD>
-</DL>
-
-The macro `CGAL_VERSION` is deprecated. It is the same as
-`CGAL_VERSION_STR`, but not as a string literal.
+All files that do not have an explicit copyright or license notice (e.g., all
+examples, some demos, data files without a license, ...)
+are distributed under the Creative Commons
+<a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CCO 1.0</a> License.
 
 */
diff --git a/Documentation/doc/Documentation/Preliminaries.txt b/Documentation/doc/Documentation/Preliminaries.txt
index 9f23bbda960..0fa310a54af 100644
--- a/Documentation/doc/Documentation/Preliminaries.txt
+++ b/Documentation/doc/Documentation/Preliminaries.txt
@@ -87,5 +87,36 @@ Note that setting inline manually is very fragile, especially in a template
 context.  It is usually better to let the compiler select by himself which
 functions should be inlined or not.
 
+\section seccgal_version Identifying the Version of CGAL
+
+Every release of \cgal defines the following preprocessor macros:
+
+<DL>
+<DT>`CGAL_VERSION_STR`</DT>
+<DD>a textual description of the current release (e.g., or 3.3 or 3.2.1 or 3.2.1-I-15) as a string literal</DD>
+<DT>`CGAL_VERSION_NR`</DT>
+<DD>a numerical description of the current release such that more recent
+releases have higher number.
+
+More precisely, it is defined as `1MMmmbiiii`, where `MM` is
+the major release number (e.g. 03), `mm` is the minor release
+number (e.g. 02), `b` is the bug-fix release number (e.g. 0),
+and `iiii` is the internal release number (e.g. 0001). For
+public releases, the latter is defined as 1000.  Examples: for the
+public release 3.2.4 this number is 1030241000; for internal release
+3.2-I-1, it is 1030200001.  Note that this scheme was modified around
+3.2-I-30.
+</DD>
+<DT>`CGAL_VERSION_NUMBER(M,m,b)`</DT>
+<DD>
+a function macro computing the version number macro from the
+M.m.b release version. Note that the internal release number is
+dropped here. Example: `CGAL_VERSION_NUMBER(3,2,4)` is equal to
+1030241000.
+</DD>
+</DL>
+
+The macro `CGAL_VERSION` is deprecated. It is the same as
+`CGAL_VERSION_STR`, but not as a string literal.
 
 */
diff --git a/Installation/CMakeLists.txt b/Installation/CMakeLists.txt
index 78dd6cf7063..99281d11635 100644
--- a/Installation/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/Installation/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -948,7 +948,7 @@ endif()
 # DESTINATION option is mandatory; skipping it breaks CPack!
 
 if(CGAL_INSTALL_DOC_DIR)
-  install(FILES AUTHORS CHANGES.md LICENSE LICENSE.FREE_USE LICENSE.GPL
+  install(FILES AUTHORS CHANGES.md LICENSE LICENSE.GPL
                 LICENSE.LGPL DESTINATION ${CGAL_INSTALL_DOC_DIR})
 endif()
 
diff --git a/Installation/LICENSE b/Installation/LICENSE
index 4a393c57241..e6d53a60269 100644
--- a/Installation/LICENSE
+++ b/Installation/LICENSE
@@ -37,8 +37,8 @@ licenses:
   is licensed under a MIT like license (see LICENSE.RFL).
 
 All other files that do not have an explicit copyright notice (e.g., all
-examples and some demos) are licensed under a very permissive license. The
-exact license text can be found in the file LICENSE.FREE_USE.
+examples and some demos) are licensed under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 license. The
+exact text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/".
 
 More information on the CGAL license can be found at
 https://www.cgal.org/license.html
diff --git a/Installation/LICENSE.FREE_USE b/Installation/LICENSE.FREE_USE
deleted file mode 100644
index dfcafa74c6b..00000000000
--- a/Installation/LICENSE.FREE_USE
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,22 +0,0 @@
-Copyright (c) 1996,1997,1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007
-Utrecht University (The Netherlands),
-ETH Zurich (Switzerland),
-INRIA Sophia-Antipolis (France),
-Max-Planck-Institute Saarbruecken (Germany),
-and Tel-Aviv University (Israel).  All rights reserved.
-
-Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
-copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
-"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
-without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
-distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
-permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
-the following conditions:
-
-THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
-OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
-MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
-IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
-CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
-TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
-SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
diff --git a/LICENSE.md b/LICENSE.md
index 652ca5673d5..a0cf2daa92e 100644
--- a/LICENSE.md
+++ b/LICENSE.md
@@ -9,7 +9,5 @@ the source tarballs.
 A lot of files in the Git repository are not distributed in the source
 tarballs, for examples all the files in the `doc/` and `test/`
 sub-directories of CGAL packages. For all those files, unless they have an
-explicit license notice, the license is the GNU General Public License (as
-published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License
-or (at your option) any later version). The text of that license can be
-found in the file `Installation/LICENSE.GPL`.
+explicit license notice, the license is the Creative Commons CC0 1.0. The text can be found 
+at https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ .