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Diffstat (limited to 'LICENCE')
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENCE | 37 |
1 files changed, 37 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/LICENCE b/LICENCE new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fc565e3f --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENCE @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +Previously Vita Nuova made the Inferno® software available under its +`Vita Nuova Liberal Source Licence' of May 2003. Because a proliferation +of licences for Open/Free software is increasingly seen as undesirable, and +because the Free Software Foundation found that licence incompatible with the GPL, +Vita Nuova now relicenses the software under a mixture of existing Free Software +licences. + +Under Vita Nuova's `dual-licence' scheme, the Inferno® software is made +available on the following terms. Files and directories in the distribution +contain NOTICE files that give (or refer to) the terms of several Free Software +licences, listed here in increasing order of liberality: + - GNU General Public License (`GPL') + - GNU Lesser General Public License (`LGPL') + - Lucent Public Licence 1.02 + - a Vita Nuova `free for all' licence based on the so-called `MIT template' +The text of each licence can be found in lib/legal. + +Some portions of the software are subject to GPL and LGPL. +Through their `copyleft' clauses impose some degree of reciprocity in terms of (for instance) +making changes and additions available in source form if you distribute software +that is subject to those licences, but only to the extent the licences require. + +Other portions are subject to the Lucent Public or Vita Nuova `free for all' licence +and do not impose `copyleft' conditions. + +For instance, the native and hosted kernels are `free for all', as are most of the +supporting libraries, but the virtual machine library and Limbo library modules are LGPL, +and the applications, including the Limbo compiler, are GPL. + +The particular choices are intended to maximise the freedom to deploy the system +in proprietary settings, and preventing clashes with licence terms for related systems +such as Plan 9 (for kernel and library code), whilst protecting the investment in +Free Software made by Vita Nuova and other contributors. + +If the terms referenced by the NOTICE files are NOT acceptable (or you just fancy +a quiet life without having to worry about them), THEN you can obtain +a more conventional Commercial Licence from Vita Nuova (support@vitanuova.com). |