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394 lines
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394 lines
19 KiB
Text
OpenBSD Copyright Policy
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https://www.openbsd.org/policy.html
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Goal
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Copyright law is complex, OpenBSD policy is simple — OpenBSD
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strives to provide code that can be freely used, copied, modified,
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and distributed by anyone and for any purpose. This maintains the
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spirit of the original Berkeley Software Distribution. The
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preferred wording of a license to be applied to new code can be
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found in the license template.
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OpenBSD can exist as it does today because of the example set by
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the Computer Systems Research Group at Berkeley and the battles
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which they and others fought to create a Unix source distribution
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un-encumbered by proprietary code and commercial licensing.
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The ability of a freely redistributable "Berkeley" Unix to move
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forward on a competitive basis with other operating systems
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depends on the willingness of the various development groups to
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exchange code amongst themselves and with other projects.
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Understanding the legal issues surrounding copyright is
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fundamental to the ability to exchange and re-distribute code,
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while honoring the spirit of the copyright and concept of
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attribution is fundamental to promoting the cooperation of the
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people involved.
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The Berkeley Copyright
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The original Berkeley copyright poses no restrictions on private
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or commercial use of the software and imposes only simple and
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uniform requirements for maintaining copyright notices in
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redistributed versions and crediting the originator of the
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material only in advertising.
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For instance:
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* Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1993
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* The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
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*
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* Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
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* modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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* are met:
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* 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
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* notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
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* 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
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* notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
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* documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
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* 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
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* must display the following acknowledgement:
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* This product includes software developed by the University of
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* California, Berkeley and its contributors.
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* 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
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* may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
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* without specific prior written permission.
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*
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* THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
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* ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
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* IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
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* ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
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* FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
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* DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
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* OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
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* HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
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* LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
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* OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
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* SUCH DAMAGE.
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*
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Berkeley rescinded the 3rd term (the advertising term) on 22 July
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1999. Verbatim copies of the Berkeley license in the OpenBSD tree
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have that term removed. In addition, many 3rd-party BSD-style
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licenses consist solely of the first two terms.
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Because the OpenBSD copyright imposes no conditions beyond those
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imposed by the Berkeley copyright, OpenBSD can hope to share the
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same wide distribution and applicability as the Berkeley
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distributions. It follows however, that OpenBSD cannot include
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material which includes copyrights which are more restrictive than
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the Berkeley copyright, or must relegate this material to a
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secondary status, i.e. OpenBSD as a whole is freely
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redistributable, but some optional components may not be.
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Copyright Law
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While the overall subject of copyright law is far beyond the scope
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of this document, some basics are in order. Under the current
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copyright law, copyrights are implicit in the creation of a new
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work and reside with the creator. In general the copyright applies
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only to the new work, not the material the work was derived from,
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nor those portions of the derivative material included in the new
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work.
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Copyright law admits to three general categories of works:
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Original Work
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A new work that is not derived from an existing work.
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Derivative Work
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Work that is derived from, includes or amends existing
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works.
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Compilation
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A work that is a compilation of existing new and
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derivative works.
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The fundamental concept is that there is primacy of the copyright,
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that is a copyright of a derivative work does not affect the
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rights held by the owner of the copyright of the original work,
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rather only the part added. Likewise the copyright of a
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compilation does not affect the rights of the owner of the
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included works, only the compilation as an entity.
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It is vitally important to understand that copyrights are broad
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protections as defined by national and international copyright
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law. The "copyright notices" usually included in source files are
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not copyrights, but rather notices that a party asserts that they
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hold copyright to the material or to part of the material.
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Typically these notices are associated with license terms which
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grant permissions subject to copyright law and with disclaimers
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that state the position of the copyright holder/distributor with
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respect to liability surrounding use of the material.
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By international law, specifically the Berne Convention for the
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Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, part of the author's
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copyright, the so-called moral rights, are inalienable. This
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includes the author's right "to claim authorship of the work and
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to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of,
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or other derogatory action in relation to, the said work, which
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would be prejudicial to his honor or reputation". In some
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countries, the law reserves additional inalienable moral rights to
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the author. On the other hand, the author is free to transfer
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other parts of his copyright, the so-called economic rights, in
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particular the rights to use, copy, modify, distribute, and
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license the work.
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Permissions — the flip side
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Because copyrights arise from the creation of a work, rather than
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through a registration process, there needs to be a practical way
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to extend permission to use a work beyond what might be allowed by
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"fair use" provisions of the copyright laws.
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This permission typically takes the form of a "release" or
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"license" included in the work, which grants the additional uses
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beyond those granted by copyright law, usually subject to a
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variety of conditions. At one extreme sits "public domain" where
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the originator asserts that he imposes no restrictions on use of
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the material, at the other restrictive clauses that actually grant
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no additional rights or impose restrictive, discriminatory or
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impractical conditions on use of the work.
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Note that a license is not to be confused with a copyright
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transfer. While a transfer would give the new copyright holder
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exclusive rights to use the code and take these rights away from
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the author, a license typically grants additional people
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non-exclusive rights to use the code, while the authors retain all
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their rights.
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The above observations regarding moral rights imply that putting
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code under an ISC or two-clause BSD license essentially makes the
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code as free as it can possibly get. Modifying the wording of
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these licenses can only result in one of the three following
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effects:
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* making the code less free by adding additional restrictions
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regarding its use, copying, modification or distribution;
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* or effectively not changing anything by merely changing the
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wording, but not changing anything substantial regarding the
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legal content;
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* or making the license illegal by attempting to deprive the
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authors of rights they cannot legally give away.
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Again, an important point to note is that the release and
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conditions can only apply to the portion of the work that was
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originated by the copyright holder—the holder of a copyright on a
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derivative work can neither grant additional permissions for use
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of the original work, nor impose more restrictive conditions for
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use of that work.
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Because copyright arises from the creation of a work and not the
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text or a registration process, removing or altering a copyright
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notice or associated release terms has no bearing on the existence
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of the copyright, rather all that is accomplished is to cast doubt
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upon whatever rights the person making the modifications had to
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use the material in the first place. Likewise, adding terms and
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conditions in conflict with the original terms and conditions does
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not supersede them, rather it casts doubts on the rights of the
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person making the amendments to use the material and creates
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confusion as to whether anyone can use the amended version or
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derivatives thereof.
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Finally, releases are generally binding on the material that they
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are distributed with. This means that if the originator of a work
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distributes that work with a release granting certain permissions,
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those permissions apply as stated, without discrimination, to all
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persons legitimately possessing a copy of the work. That means
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that having granted a permission, the copyright holder can not
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retroactively say that an individual or class of individuals are
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no longer granted those permissions. Likewise should the copyright
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holder decide to "go commercial" he can not revoke permissions
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already granted for the use of the work as distributed, though he
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may impose more restrictive permissions in his future
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distributions of that work.
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Specific Cases
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This section attempts to summarize the position of OpenBSD
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relative to some commonly encountered copyrights.
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Berkeley
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The Berkeley copyright is the model for the OpenBSD
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copyright. It retains the rights of the copyright holder,
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while imposing minimal conditions on the use of the
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copyrighted material. Material with Berkeley copyrights,
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or copyrights closely adhering to the Berkeley model can
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generally be included in OpenBSD.
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AT&T
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As part of its settlement with AT&T, Berkeley included an
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AT&T copyright notice on some of the files in 4.4BSD lite
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and lite2. The terms of this license are identical to the
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standard Berkeley license.
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Additionally, OpenBSD includes some other AT&T code with
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non-restrictive copyrights, such as the reference
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implementation of awk.
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Caldera
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The original Unix code (AT&T versions 1 through 7 UNIX,
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including 32V) was freed by Caldera, Inc. on 23 January
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2002 and is now available under a 4-term BSD-style
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license. As a result, it would theoretically be possible
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to incorporate original Unix code into OpenBSD. However,
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that code is now so old that it does not satisfy today's
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interface and quality standards.
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DEC, Sun, other manufacturers/software houses.
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In general OpenBSD does not include material copyrighted
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by manufacturers or software houses. Material may be
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included where the copyright owner has granted general
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permission for reuse without conditions, with terms
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similar to the Berkeley copyright, or where the material
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is the product of an employee and the employer's copyright
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notice effectively releases any rights they might have to
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the work.
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Carnegie-Mellon (CMU, Mach)
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The Carnegie-Mellon copyright is similar to the Berkeley
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copyright, except that it requests that derivative works
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be made available to Carnegie-Mellon. Because this is only
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a request and not a condition, such material can still be
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included in OpenBSD. It should be noted that existing
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versions of Mach are still subject to AT&T copyrights,
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which prevents the general distribution of Mach sources.
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Apache
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The original Apache license was similar to the Berkeley
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license, but source code published under version 2 of the
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Apache license is subject to additional restrictions and
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cannot be included into OpenBSD. In particular, if you use
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code under the Apache 2 license, some of your rights will
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terminate if you claim in court that the code violates a
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patent.
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A license can only be considered fully permissive if it
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allows use by anyone for all the future without giving up
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any of their rights. If there are conditions that might
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terminate any rights in the future, or if you have to give
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up a right that you would otherwise have, even if
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exercising that right could reasonably be regarded as
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morally objectionable, the code is not free.
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In addition, the clause about the patent license is
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problematic because a patent license cannot be granted
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under Copyright law, but only under contract law, which
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drags the whole license into the domain of contract law.
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But while Copyright law is somewhat standardized by
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international agreements, contract law differs wildly
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among jurisdictions. So what the license means in
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different jurisdictions may vary and is hard to predict.
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ISC
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The ISC copyright is functionally equivalent to a two-term
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BSD copyright with language removed that is made
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unnecessary by the Berne convention. This is the preferred
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license for new code incorporated into OpenBSD. A sample
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license is available in the file
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/usr/share/misc/license.template.
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GNU General Public License, GPL, LGPL, copyleft, etc.
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The GNU Public License and licenses modeled on it impose
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the restriction that source code must be distributed or
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made available for all works that are derivatives of the
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GNU copyrighted code.
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While this may superficially look like a noble strategy,
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it is a condition that is typically unacceptable for
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commercial use of software. So in practice, it usually
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ends up hindering free sharing and reuse of code and ideas
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rather than encouraging it. As a consequence, no
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additional software bound by the GPL terms will be
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considered for inclusion into the OpenBSD base system.
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For historical reasons, the OpenBSD base system still
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includes the following GPL-licensed components: the GNU
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compiler collection (GCC) with supporting binutils and
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libraries, GNU CVS, GNU texinfo, the mkhybrid file system
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creation tool, and the readline library. Replacement by
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equivalent, more freely licensed tools is a long-term
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desideratum.
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NetBSD
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Much of OpenBSD is originally based on and evolved from
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NetBSD, since some of the OpenBSD developers were involved
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in the NetBSD project. The general NetBSD license terms
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are compatible with the Berkeley license and permit such
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use. Material subject only to the general NetBSD license
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can generally be included in OpenBSD.
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In the past, NetBSD has included material copyrighted by
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individuals who have imposed license conditions beyond
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that of the general NetBSD license, but granted the NetBSD
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Foundation license to distribute the material. Such
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material can not be included in OpenBSD as long as the
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conditions imposed are at odds with the OpenBSD license
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terms or releases from those terms are offered on a
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discriminatory basis.
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FreeBSD
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Most of FreeBSD is also based on Berkeley licensed
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material or includes copyright notices based on the
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Berkeley model. Such material can be included in OpenBSD,
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while those parts that are subject to GPL or various
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individual copyright terms that are at odds with the
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OpenBSD license can not be included in OpenBSD.
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Linux
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Most of Linux is subject to GPL style licensing terms and
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therefore can not be included in OpenBSD. Individual
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components may be eligible, subject to the terms of the
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originator's copyright notices. Note that Linux
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"distributions" may also be subject to additional
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copyright claims of the distributing organization, either
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as a compilation or on material included that is not part
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of the Linux core.
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X.Org
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The X.Org Foundation maintains and distributes the X
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Window System under a modified MIT license, which is quite
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similar to the BSD license and additionally allows
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sublicensing. Under the name of Xenocara, the OpenBSD base
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system includes an improved and actively maintained
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version of the X.Org code.
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Shareware, Charityware, Freeware, etc.
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Most "shareware" copyright notices impose conditions for
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redistribution, use or visibility that are at conflict
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with the OpenBSD project goals. Review on a case-by-case
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basis is required as to whether the wording of the
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conditions is acceptable in terms of conditions being
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requested vs. demanded and whether the spirit of the
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conditions is compatible with goals of the OpenBSD
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project.
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Public Domain
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While material that is truly entered into the "public
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domain" can be included in OpenBSD, review is required on
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a case by case basis. Frequently the "public domain"
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assertion is made by someone who does not really hold all
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rights under copyright law to grant that status or there
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are a variety of conditions imposed on use. For a work to
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be truly in the "public domain" all rights are abandoned
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and the material is offered without restrictions.
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In some jurisdictions, it is doubtful whether voluntarily
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placing one's own work into the public domain is legally
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possible. For that reason, to make any substantial body of
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code free, it is preferable to state the copyright and put
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it under an ISC or BSD license instead of attempting to
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release it into the public domain.
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