727 lines
38 KiB
Plaintext
727 lines
38 KiB
Plaintext
Andrey "Croco" Stolyarov
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Belgrade, Serbia
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December 25, 2025
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CROCO'S INDIVIDUALISTIC FREE SOFTWARE LICENSE
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version 0.251225; draft, subject to change
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Redistribution of this document is unlimited,
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but any modified version must have a completely
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different title so as to make it impossible to
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confuse the modified version for the original
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text.
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== 0. Informal preamble (non-normative)
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Many years ago Richard Stallman started the Free Software movement. Being
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a huge step in an obviously right direction, the software freedom as defined
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by Stallman (and the movement) has proven to be insufficient for a software
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user to really be free.
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Even if you have the full source code of a certain program, the permission
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to modify it in whatever manner you want and even the knowledge of a good
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programmer needed to perform such modifications, it all gives you no real
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freedom (and actually remains completely useless for you) if the program in
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question is complicated enough so that only large corporations have
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sufficient resources to actually modify it. Furthermore, in a vast
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majority of real-world cases, such complicateness is not needed for
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anything really useful, but, again, corporations invent more and more
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complicated hardware, network protocols and data formats, having only one
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real goal: to make independent software developers unable to deal with all
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that mess.
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Corporations tend to infiltrate their representatives into various
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non-profit organizations related to free software, as well as to control
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such organizations by funding them. The good old principle ``if you can't
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beat them, join them'' is well-known to all these corporate people. All
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these processes have nothing to do with any freedom.
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For decades, GNU GPL was known as the most restrictive license for free
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software. This License, titled as Croco's Individualistic Free Software
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License, is far more restrictive as it actually limits most of its
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permissions to individuals, only allowing any non-individual entity to
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run the licensed software on their computers, unmodified, but not to modify
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nor to redistribute the software. And this license has a ``viral nature''
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just like GNU GPL does: if any piece of the code of a program is licensed
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with this license, the whole program must be licensed with the same
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license, too.
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Freedom is for individuals. And individuals are for freedom.
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And one more thing: this license demands any source code to be published
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openly on the Internet before any distribution of the software takes place,
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meaning that any source code of any program that is used by anyone else
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than the author, must be made available not only to the users but to the
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general public. There is no point for individuals to keep their sources
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private, unless there's something very bad or even criminal inside. For
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corporations, the things are different, but it's their problem.
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== 1. The scope of the license
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This license (hereinafter referred to as "this License") applies to any
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software (hereinafter referred to as "the Work") that bears the appropriate
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notice indentifying the License.
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The software (the Work) may either be a complete computer program or a code
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library. Conditions imposed by this license for complete programs differ
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significantly from the conditions set for code libraries. The term "the
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Program" is used hereinafter to refer to a Work which is a complete
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computer program, while the term "the Library" is used to refer to a Work
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which is a software library.
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The text of this License is written in the assumption that the Work is
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written in a compiled programming language, so that the Work itself may be
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represented in a form of its source code and in a translated (binary) form,
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suitable for executing by a computer. To avoid confusion, this License
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should not be applied to Works created in interpreted programming
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languages, but if for any reason it is applied to such a Work, it must be
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kept in mind that the thing referred to as "distribution in binary form" is
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technically impossible for Works written in interpreted languages, so the
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respective parts of this License may not be executed, but the rest of the
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text of this License still remains in effect.
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No one has any obligations to accept the terms and conditions of this
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License, but the software that comes with this License (the Work) is
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copyrighted and protected by the respective local and international laws,
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so this License may be (and usually is) the only source of one's right to
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do anything with the Work. Hence, if one disagrees with the conditions
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offered by the License, then that one must either refrain from dealing with
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the Work anyhow, or must contact the copyright holder and negotiate other
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conditions beforehand, in written. Please note that the copyright holder
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has no obligations to grant anyone any additional permissions or even to
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communicate with anyone.
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In case someone starts using the Work (in one way or another), the mere
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fact of such usage indicates one's complete and unconditional consent with
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the terms and conditions of this License; otherwise, such usage would be a
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copyright violation.
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Every person or entity using the Work with the permissions granted by this
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License, automatically becomes a licensee, while the copyright holder of
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the Work (or holders, if there are more than one of them) becomes (become)
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the licensor (the licensors).
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== 2. Warranty disclaimer
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THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE WORK, BE IT A PROGRAM OR A LIBRARY. EXCEPT
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WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITTEN, THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER
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PARTIES PROVIDE THE WORK "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER
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EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
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OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK
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AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE WORK IS WITH THE USER (THE
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LICENSEE). SHOULD THE WORK PROVE DEFECTIVE, THE USER ASSUMES THE COST OF
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ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, CORRECTION OR REPLACEMENT.
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IN NO EVENT UNLESS AGREED TO IN WRITTEN, WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY
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OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE WORK AS PERMITTED BY
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THIS LICENSE, BE LIABLE ANY OF THE LICENSEES FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY
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GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE
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USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE WORK (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF
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DATA, OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE, OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY LICENSEES
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OR THIRD PARTIES, OR A FAILURE OF THE WORK TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
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SOFTWARE), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
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POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
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This warranty disclaimer is an integral part of this License and its terms
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and conditions. Disagreeing with this disclaimer in a whole or in a part,
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as well as any attempts to dispute it, automatically and immediately
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terminates this License and any permissions granted by the License to any
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disagreeing/disputing party.
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== 3. The two types of licensees
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This License defines two types of licensees, granting them completely
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different sets of permissions: full licensees and end-user licensees.
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Every person, organization or an entity of any other type are eligible to
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be end-user licensees provided that they agree with the License's terms and
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conditions, unless they take (or took in the past) any actions explicitly
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mentioned in this License as terminating the License and making the entity
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no longer eligible to be an end-user licensee.
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In contrast, only an individual, which means a physically existing human
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being, may be eligible for being a full licensee in terms of this License,
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provided that the individual in question is acting here and now on his/her
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own behalf and in his/her own interests, or on behalf of another
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individual but NOT on behalf of a non-individual third party, and
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provided that the individual fully understands and accepts all terms and
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conditions imposed by this License. It does not matter whether the
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individual is engaged in commercial activities or acts to satisfy his/her
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personal needs.
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Organizations of any kind, companies, corporations, legal entities, be they
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commercial or non-profit, governmental or private, formal or informal, as
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well as any teams, groups, workgroups, consortiums, commitees, political
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parties, churches, foundations, movements, and any other subjects that are
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not individual human beings, are NOT eligible to be full licensees under
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the terms of this License. This means that any entities other than
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physically existing human beings can only use the Work according to the
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permissions this License gives to end-user licensees; all these permissions
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are explicitly enumerated in the section 4 of this License.
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Individuals employed by an organization of any kind are considered to be
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acting on behalf of their employer during their work hours and/or when they
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use their workplaces provided by the employer, as well as when they do any
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work for their employer, hence, not being eligible as full licensees in
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terms of this License; in the spare time (being out of duty), however,
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every individual regardless of his/her employment status is eligible as a
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full licensee under terms of this License, provided that they don't do any
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work for their employer here and now.
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Self-employed individuals, such as individual enterpreneurs or freelancers,
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as well as volunteers, are NOT considered to act on anyone's behalf even
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when they perform some work on someone's order, regardless of whether the
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work is done in exchange for a fee or not; individuals who are not
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employees of an organization are only considered to act on behalf of the
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organization if they are doing a job that, by its nature, implies to act on
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behalf of the organization (as it is for attorneys, agents and the like).
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== 4. Permissions granted to the end-user licensees
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Only complete programs, by their nature, can be used by end-users; software
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libraries can not, technically, have end-users, because they are only used
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by programmers to create other software works. This is why this License
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only grants end-user licensees permission to use such Works covered by
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this License that are complete computer programs, not code libraries. Any
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such Work is referred to as "the Program".
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This License grants end-user licensees the permission:
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a) to acquire and store the Program in both source code form and in the
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form of binary executables;
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b) to use the source code of the Program for the purpose of building
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binary executables;
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c) to install the Program in its executable form on the licensee's own
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computers as well as on the computers rented from third parties, such
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as dedicated or virtual servers, provided that such installation is not
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indended as an act of transferring the Program (in any of its forms) to
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any third parties;
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d) to run the Program on the licensee's own computers as well as on the
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computers rented from third parties, for any purposes the licensee may
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have, including the purpose of providing some services to third parties,
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provided that this doesn't lead to redistribution of the Program nor to
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transferring the Program to third parties, in any of its forms, in the
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whole or in parts.
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On the other hand, this License DOES NOT ALLOW (and, furthermore,
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explicitly forbids) end-user licensees to take any actions on the Program
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other than explicitly mentioned in the list above, including, but not
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limited to, reading and otherwise examining the source code by any of the
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licensee's employees and, generally, any use of the Program in its source
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code form for any purposes other than for building executable binaries of
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the same Program or, in case the Program is written in an interpreted
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language, for running the Program in an interpreter; making any
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modifications to the Program, neither in its source nor in its binary form;
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transferring the Program to any third parties, neither in the source nor in
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binary form, neither as verbatim copies nor modified, neither alone nor as
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a part of a larger whole; making any works derived from the Program.
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Employees of an end-user licensee, being individuals, may be eligible as
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full licensees in terms of this License. As long as an organization or any
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other entity uses, or is going to use, any software covered with this
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License, thus being an end-user licensee in terms of this License, it is
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explicitly forbidden for them, being someone's employer, to order their
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employees to use any of the permissions granted to them by this License, as
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well as to ask them to do so in their spare time, even if such usage
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doesn't directly serve the employer's interests. Doing so immediately and
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permanently terminates this License for this particular end-user licensee
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for any software and other works covered by this License, and makes the
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organization or other entity no longer eligible as an end-user licensee
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in terms of this License, for any Work covered by this License.
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The rest of the License's text and any permissions mentioned thereinafter
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only apply to the full licensees as defined in the section 3 of this
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License. Entities not eligible to be full licensees are only granted the
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permissions explicitly mentioned in the list given in this section (see
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above), and can only get any other rights, permissions or conditions for
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using the Program by acquiring an explicit written permission of the
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Program's copyright holder, or all copyright holders if there are more than
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one of them.
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== 5. Permissions granted to the full licensees
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Permissions granted to the end-user licensees as stated in the section 4 of
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this License, are granted to the full licensees, too. Besides that, full
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licensees, provided that they accept and obey all the conditions stated in
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the rest of this License's text, are also granted the following
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permissions:
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a) to distribute verbatim copies of the Work in its source form to any
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third parties under the terms and conditions of this License, imposing
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no additional restrictions, provided that the Work remains publicly
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available on the Internet, either at the site it was originally
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received from, or being published at any other site by anyone who has
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the right to do so, e.g., by this or any other full licensee;
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b) to distribute verbatim copies of the Work which is a complete computer
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program (the Program) in its binary form to any third parties under the
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terms and conditions of this License, provided that such distribution
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meets the requirements stated in the section 6 of this License;
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c) to modify the Work, thus creating works derived from the original
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Work, and use the modified version;
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d) to create works derived from the original Work in other ways, such as
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by including the Work into a larger whole;
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e) to distribute works derived from the original Work, provided that the
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derived works are distributed under exactly the same License, and all
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terms and conditions stated in this License for such a distribution
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are strictly and unconditionally obeyed.
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This License only permits binary distribution for unmodified Work (which
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must be a complete program). However, in case a full licensee creates a
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work derived from the Work and publishes that derived work according to
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the terms and conditions of this License, the derived work is considered a
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separate work covered by this License, and its binary distribution becomes
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permitted as the distribution of an unmodified version of that (derived)
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work.
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Since only full licensees have the right to distribute any Work covered
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with this License, it is hereby explicitly clarified that it is NOT ALLOWED
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to distribute the Work through package repositories, application stores and
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other software distribution facilities owned and/or being run by entities
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not eligible as full licensees under the terms of this License. This means
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in particular (but is not limited to) that the Work can not be included
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into distributions of Linux or other operating systems unless the
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distribution is run by an individual.
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On the other hand, a full licensee may distribute the Work through
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his/her own web site, ftp site and the like, even if the site is served by
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a server machine and/or uses bandwidth and other infrastructure that
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belongs to organizations or other entities not eligible as full licensees.
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Provided that the publishing facility, such as a web site or an ftp site,
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is as such owned and run by a full licensee, the facility's owner is
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considered the entity distributing the Work.
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A full licensee is also permitted to distribute the work through his/her
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personal space within someone else's site, such as a personal page at a
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social media site, or a personal directory at an ftp site. This is only
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allowed provided that it is made clear for general public that the full
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lincensee individually controls the content of the personal space and is
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entirely responsible for the act of distributing the Work, while the whole
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site's owner only makes it technically possible.
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== 6. Conditions for distribution of the Program in binary form
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This License only allows non-source distribution of the Work provided that
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the Work is a complete computer program (the Program). This License does
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NOT grant anyone (including the individuals eligible as full licensees) any
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permission to distribute in a form other than the form of the source code
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any Work which is not a complete computer program (typically a code
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library); so, any Work which is not a complete program, must only be
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distributed by full licensees and only in the form of source code.
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A full licensee is allowed to distribute verbatim copies of the Program in
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its binary form (executable files) to any third party. It does not
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matter whether the executable files being distributed are prepared (built)
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by the licensee who distributes them, or by a party the licensee got the
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Program from, including the original copyright holder. The following
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conditions must be met in case of such distribution:
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a) neither the act of building binary executables from the source code,
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nor the act of transferring them may change the legal status of the
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Program in any way, including its licensing policy; the Program remains
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copyrighted to the original copyright holders, and remains licensed
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under the terms and conditions of this License; the licensee who
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distributes the executables must not claim any rights over the Program
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nor its copies being made during the distribution;
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b) no copyright notices, nor notices related anyhow to the copyright law,
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patent law, trademark law or any other so-called ``intellectual
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property'' laws must be added to what the program originally beared
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and/or displayed; on the other hand, as this section applies to
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distribution of unmodified versions, it is implied that all original
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notices are kept intact;
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c) all parties receiving the copy of the Program in its binary form
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(executable files), must be properly notified about the legal status
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of the Program, supplied with a copy of this License and advised about
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the possibility to receive the Program in its source form as well;
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d) any distribution of the Work, including, but not limited to,
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distribution of an unmodified version of the Work which is a complete
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computer program (the Program) in its binary form, may only take place
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provided that the full source code of the Program (or a Work) is
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published on the Internet beforehand, openly, and remains published
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thereof for at least three years after the last act of distribution in
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binary form took place; the particular conditions for publishing the
|
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source code are defined in the section 9 of this License;
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e) before the distribution takes place, the licensee who performs the
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distribution must make sure he or she has a copy of the full source
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code of the Program, in the particular version used to build binaries
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being distributed; the copy must be stored carefully for at least three
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years after the last copy of the Program in binary form was transferred
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to any third party;
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f) as long as the source code of the Program, in the particular version
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used to build binaries being distributed, remains properly published
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by a third party, e.g., the original copyright holder or the party
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the Program was originally received from by the licensee who
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distributes it, there's no need for that licensee to publish the source
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code on his/her own; if, however, the original publication becomes
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unavailable and remains unavailable for three days or longer, then all
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licensees who distributed at least one copy of the Program's executable
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files during the last three years, must immediately take all necessary
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steps to make their own copies of the source code publicly available;
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g) the distribution of the Program in binary form may only take place
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provided that every entity receiving the binaries is technically able
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to get the sources and reproduce the binaries being distributed,
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without the need to pay for any software (such as a proprietary
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compiler or any other software component needed to reproduce the
|
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binaries), without the need to obtain any additional licenses (such as
|
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a developer license for a particular platform) and without the need to
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ask anyone's permission both to produce the binaries and to execute the
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binaries on devices that belong to users who are willing to do so.
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It is hereby explicitly clarified that it is NOT ALLOWED:
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- to distribute the Work in the form of a binary executable produced by a
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proprietary compiler and/or other proprietary software tools, unless it
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is legally possible for every willing person to get and use all the
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necessary tools free of charge;
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- to distribute the Work in the form of a ``signed'' binary for a platform
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which disallows to run ``unsigned'' binaries, unless it is technically
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and legally possible for every willing person to provide the necessary
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``signature'' on his/her own, free of charge, and without asking
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anyone's permission.
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== 7. Copyright policy for modifications made to the Work
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7.1. Separate objects for different copyright status and different
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licensing policies
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Any software source code, being considered as a copyrighted work, is merely
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a text that consists of files, and each file can have its own copyright
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holder, or several of them. For the purpose of this policy it is assumed
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that no parts of a single file can be copyrighted separately, although the
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copyright law allows even that. However, should someone for any reason
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want to place a separate copyright on one's code which is a part of a
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larger file, there are no technical obstacles to move the code in question
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into a separate file and place the copyright on that file.
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A complete program, as long as it is represented as the source code, may
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also be considered as consisting of its main part and the code libraries.
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For the purpose of this policy, a library is always a set of files clearly
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separated from the rest of the code, logically integrated as a whole and
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self-containing in the sense that it must be clearly shown that the library
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can be, as a whole, used in other (unrelated) programs just as good as it
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is used in this particular program. For instance, a library can not and
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must not depend on any code that resides in the main part of the program;
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it is also strongly discouraged (but still allowed) to let libraries depend
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on each other.
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The important thing about libraries is that each of the libraries used in a
|
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program can effectively have its own licensing policy. Sometimes this
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affects the whole program, even in its binary representation, in the sense
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that the program must display the copyright status for the library along
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|
with any copyright notices displayed for the program itself. For example,
|
|
the well-known GNU Lesser General Public License requires this for binaries
|
|
that contain the object code of libraries licensed under it, but doesn't
|
|
require it for the case when the library in question is linked in runtime
|
|
as a dynamically-loadable library. This practice encourages the use of
|
|
dynamic linking, which is questionable. For the most of permissive free
|
|
software licenses, however, this is not the case; for many libraries, their
|
|
licensing policy doesn't impose any conditions regarding how the whole
|
|
program must behave.
|
|
|
|
For any Work covered with this License, separate files must be kept the
|
|
minimal units that can have their own copyright status, and libraries must
|
|
be kept as minimal units that have their own licensing policy. If the Work
|
|
is a complete program, its main part must all be covered with this License,
|
|
but some of the libraries included into the source tree may have their own
|
|
licenses, as long as this doesn't conflict with licensing of the program as
|
|
a whole under this License. If the Work is a code library, it must be
|
|
put under this License altogether, or not licensed under this License at
|
|
all.
|
|
|
|
|
|
7.2. Copyright status for works derived from the one licensed under
|
|
this License
|
|
|
|
Under the copyright law, any minor modifications may be subject to be
|
|
copyrighted. This License imposes a certain limit on this.
|
|
|
|
Whenever a person being a full licensee in terms of this License makes any
|
|
modifications to a Work, these modifications must be clearly marked so that
|
|
the original author will not be accused for possible errors and regressions
|
|
made by such modifications. However, in many cases such modifications must
|
|
not change the copyright status of a Work as a whole nor of a particular
|
|
modified file, because the copyright for modifications is (as a condition
|
|
imposed by this License) automatically transferred to the original author.
|
|
This automatic copyright transfer applies to:
|
|
|
|
- minor modifications; any modifications that affect less than 10% of a
|
|
particular file must be considered minor for the purpose of this
|
|
condition;
|
|
|
|
- any modifications, regardless of their volume, on which their author
|
|
didn't place the appropriate copyright notice.
|
|
|
|
In both cases the original author becomes the copyright holder of all
|
|
modifications to the full extent, including, but not limited to, the right
|
|
to publish or otherwise distribute the whole Work under any other license.
|
|
|
|
In case the individual who modifies the Work as permitted by this License
|
|
to full licensees, makes significant (that is, not minor as it is defined
|
|
above) changes to the code, and wishes to keep the copyright on the work
|
|
done thereof, that person must do one of the following:
|
|
|
|
- either place all significant pieces of the code which are to have a
|
|
different copyright status into separate files and place the appropriate
|
|
copyright notices in these files (typically in a commentary at the
|
|
beginning of the file); in case the Work has a separate file that
|
|
summarizes the copyright status for all parts of the Work, it is
|
|
allowed (and may be necessary) to change that file to reflect the fact
|
|
that certain files from now on have a different copyright status;
|
|
|
|
- or add to existing files a copyright notice that starts with the words
|
|
"portions copyright"; this is only allowed if the file already has a
|
|
copyright notice of the original author (copyright holder);
|
|
|
|
- in case the Work in question isn't used to have copyright notices for
|
|
each file, but instead summarizes its copyright status in a dedicated
|
|
file, it is allowed to modify that file to reflect the changes; it is up
|
|
to the person who made the modification to refrain from adding copyright
|
|
notices into individual files, or to do so despite of the practice
|
|
adopted for the rest of the Work.
|
|
|
|
In case the Work is a complete program and the Program displays a copyright
|
|
notice when it runs, then:
|
|
|
|
- the best possible thing is to negotiate with the original author what
|
|
is to be displayed as the copyright notice by the modified version, so
|
|
the author of modifications MUST at least try to contact the original
|
|
author (or authors) and negotiate the question;
|
|
|
|
- it is always allowed to leave the original copyright notice unchanged,
|
|
provided that it is accompanied by an additional notice which informs
|
|
the user that this is a modified version (like "slightly modified by
|
|
John Doe");
|
|
|
|
- in case more than 10% of the source code of the Program in its modified
|
|
version is written by the new author, such author is permitted to add
|
|
to the original copyright notice displayed by the Program his/her own
|
|
copyright notice that starts with the words "portions copyright"; this
|
|
permission does not depend on the opinion of the original copyright
|
|
holder and may be used in cases when it is either impossible to contact
|
|
the original author, or the negotiations with the original author didn't
|
|
lead to a result that satisfies all parties;
|
|
|
|
- in case the Program derived from the original Work contains less than
|
|
50% (of the whole Program's volume) of a code that comes from the
|
|
original Work, it is allowed to replace the original copyright notice
|
|
with a copyright notice of the new author, accompanied by a notice like
|
|
"based on the work...", identifying the original Work and its author
|
|
(authors); displaying of the original copyright notice in this case is
|
|
encouraged, but optional.
|
|
|
|
|
|
7.3. Copyright notices for a Program that uses a Library covered by this
|
|
License
|
|
|
|
If a source code of any program contains a Library covered by this License,
|
|
such a program is a derived work of that Library and as such must either be
|
|
kept private, or be distributed under the terms and conditions of this
|
|
License. Besides that, the appropriate credits must be given within the
|
|
source code to the creators of the Library.
|
|
|
|
However, in case the resulting program is distributed in its binary form
|
|
according to the License (which implies, but is not limited to, that the
|
|
full source code is published openly beforehand), and the Library is
|
|
published by its autor (authors) as a code library (which means it is
|
|
clearly stated by the original author(s) that the work is a code library
|
|
and nothing else), there is no obligation for a binary of the whole program
|
|
to display any copyrights of the Library, nor other notices related to the
|
|
fact the program uses the Library. On the other hand, displaying of such
|
|
notices is certainly not prohibited; it is up to the authors of the program
|
|
whether to mention in the messages displayed by their program the fact the
|
|
program uses a Library covered by this License.
|
|
|
|
The permissions given in this section of the License don't depend on the
|
|
volume of the Library, nor on the volume of the main part of the Program,
|
|
nor on their ratio.
|
|
|
|
|
|
7.4. Clearly separated libraries
|
|
|
|
If a work derived from the Work covered by this License contains
|
|
identifiable sections (sets of source files) that can be reasonably
|
|
considered independent and separate works in themselves, and, being so
|
|
considered, are not derived from the original Work, which means they don't
|
|
contain any of the code from the original Work and don't depend on such
|
|
code, then authors of such sections may, at their option, clearly declare
|
|
the code sections as separate code libraries, with their own copyright and
|
|
licensing policies, provided that such policies don't contradict with
|
|
inclusion of the libraries into the derived work as a whole.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
== 8. Conditions for distribution of derived Works
|
|
|
|
Any software work, made by modifying the Work covered by this License, or
|
|
otherwise derived from such Work, provided that the derived Work is made by
|
|
an eligible full licensee, must either be kept private, or distributed
|
|
under the terms and conditions of this License. It is not legally possible
|
|
for any work derived from a Work covered by this License to be relicensed
|
|
to any terms and conditions different from those stated by this License,
|
|
nor to be distributed otherwise than under this License, unless such
|
|
relicensing and distribution is explicitly permitted in written by every of
|
|
the original Work's copyright holders.
|
|
|
|
Before any distribution of a derived work starts, be it a distribution in
|
|
the source or in binary form, the party (full licensee) who intends to
|
|
perform the distribution, must publish the source code of the Work on
|
|
the Internet, openly, and the conditions defined in the section 9 of this
|
|
License must be met for such publication.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
== 9. Conditions for publishing the source code of the Work being
|
|
distributed
|
|
|
|
Before any distribution of the Work covered by this License starts, the
|
|
complete source code of the Work must be published on the Internet,
|
|
fulfilling the following conditions:
|
|
|
|
a) the source code must be published on a site which doesn't require any
|
|
registration and imposes no limitations on downloading the published
|
|
source code, which means that any party who has Internet connectivity
|
|
in any part of the world must be able to download the code; in case
|
|
access to the site gets blocked by authorities of a particular country,
|
|
location, community or the like, the publisher is encouraged, but is
|
|
not obliged to take measures to publish elsewhere; however, the site
|
|
must not block access from any specific locations on its own;
|
|
|
|
b) it must be possible to download the source code in batch mode (e.g.,
|
|
from a script) without human intervention with well-known programs such
|
|
as wget, lftpget, curl and so on; in particular, this means the access
|
|
must not be restricted by any CAPTCHA tests or the like; furthermore, it
|
|
must not be required to have a working interpreter of JavaScript nor of
|
|
any other language, and it must not be required even to have a web
|
|
browser capable of rendering HTML;
|
|
|
|
c) the access to the published source code must be provided with either
|
|
the FTP protocol, as defined in RFC959, or the HTTP protocol of versions
|
|
1.1, 1.0 or 0.9, or the HTTPS protocol, which is strongly discouraged,
|
|
but is still acceptable; publishing the source code on a server that
|
|
only supports "later" protocols such as HTTP/2, HTTP/3, SPEEDY and the
|
|
like, regardless of their current standardizing status and adoption, and
|
|
refuses to give away the content to clients that don't support such
|
|
protocols, does NOT fulfill the requirement for publishing the source
|
|
code;
|
|
|
|
d) the source code of the Work must be published as a single archive file
|
|
in one of the common formats, which by the time of the publication has
|
|
existed for at least 20 years, is widespread in the world, has an open
|
|
and clearly written specification, which is available completely
|
|
royalty-free and for which there are open source, freely available
|
|
implementations written in ANSI C; .zip, .tar, .tar.gz and .tar.bz2 are
|
|
examples of such formats;
|
|
|
|
e) for the case of distribution of the Program in the form of compiled
|
|
binary executables, the party who intends such distribution must
|
|
publish the exact version of the source code which was used to build
|
|
the binaries going to be distributed, and a detailed instruction must
|
|
be provided on how to build exactly the same binaries;
|
|
|
|
f) in case the distribution of the Program in binary form took place at
|
|
least once, the complete source code of the Program must remain
|
|
available on the Internet, fulfilling all the conditions above, for at
|
|
least three years after the last copy of the binaries was given away to
|
|
any party; it is the duty of the party who performed the binary
|
|
distribution to guarantee the availability of the published source
|
|
code.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
== 10. Prohibition of corporate and other non-individual copyright holders
|
|
|
|
In case someone eligible as a full licensee under the terms of this License
|
|
significantly modifies the Work, this may lead to the situation when the
|
|
modified version of the Work (a derived work) has two (or more) copyright
|
|
holders: one of them holds the copyright for the original Work, and the
|
|
other has the copyright for the changes that led to nascense of the derived
|
|
work.
|
|
|
|
It is in most cases legally impossible to disallow anyone to transfer their
|
|
copyrights to any parties. However, in case one of the copyright holders
|
|
of the Work covered by this License (or several such copyright holders, but
|
|
not all) transfers his/her copyright (copyrights) to any party which is not
|
|
an individual human being, this automatically and immediately terminates
|
|
this License for all parts of the Work for which the copyright is still not
|
|
transferred to such party, thus in most cases making the Work as a whole
|
|
undistributable and unusable, until the copyright term for the whole work
|
|
is over (which is usually impractical to wait for).
|
|
|
|
The same happens in case the copyright for any part of the Work (but still
|
|
not for the whole Work) is assigned to any non-individual party in any way,
|
|
such as by conditions of any contract or other agreement, by a court
|
|
judgement, in the order of inheritance, or whatsoever else.
|
|
|
|
The license termination only affects works that contain parts on which the
|
|
copyright is actually transferred to any non-individual holder; the License
|
|
remains in effect for all works that don't contain such parts, e.g., the
|
|
original Work or other works derived from the same original.
|
|
|
|
The prohibition defined in this section of the License does not apply when
|
|
a part of the derived work, which in itself is not derived from the
|
|
original Work anyhow, is clearly separated into a library as explained in
|
|
the section 7.4. Such library can have non-individual copyright holders
|
|
without termination of any license rights, provided that:
|
|
|
|
- the library is distributed under a license which doesn't contradict
|
|
with inclusion of the library into a work covered, as a whole, by this
|
|
License, and
|
|
|
|
- the library is officially published as a completely separate work,
|
|
openly, by its copyright holders or other parties having the right to do
|
|
so, and the publication took place before the whole Work (which is
|
|
covered by this License and includes the library as its part) was
|
|
published.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
== 11. Prohibition of the distribution in case it is legally impossible to
|
|
satisfy the conditions of the License
|
|
|
|
If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
|
|
infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
|
|
conditions are imposed on a full licensee (whether by court order,
|
|
agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License,
|
|
they do not excuse the licensee from the conditions of this License. If the
|
|
licensee can not distribute the Work so as to satisfy simultaneously
|
|
his/her obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations,
|
|
then as a consequence the licensee may not distribute the Work at all.
|
|
|
|
If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any
|
|
particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to apply
|
|
and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other circumstances.
|