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+Licensing
+=========
+
+If you intend to use rsyslog inside a GPLv3 compatible project, you are free to
+do so. You don't even need to continue reading. If you intend to use rsyslog
+inside a non-GPLv3 compatible project, rsyslog offers you some liberties to do
+that, too. However, you then need to study the licensing details in depth.
+
+The project hopes this is a good compromise, which also gives a boost to
+fellow free software developers who release under GPLv3.
+
+And now on to the dirty and boring license details, still on a executive
+summary level. For the real details, check source files and the files
+COPYING and COPYING.LESSER inside the distribution.
+
+The rsyslog package contains several components:
+
+-  the rsyslog core programs (like rsyslogd)
+-  plugins (like imklog, omrelp, ...)
+-  the rsyslog runtime library
+
+Each of these components can be thought of as individual projects. In
+fact, some of the plugins have different main authors than the rest of
+the rsyslog package. All of these components are currently put together
+into a single "rsyslog" package (tarball) for convenience: this makes it
+easier to distribute a consistent version where everything is included
+(and in the right versions) to build a full system. Platform package
+maintainers in general take the overall package and split off the
+individual components, so that users can install only what they need. In
+source installations, this can be done via the proper ./configure
+switches.
+
+However, while it is convenient to package all parts in a single
+tarball, it does not imply all of them are necessarily covered by the
+same license. Traditionally, GPL licenses are used for rsyslog, because
+the project would like to provide free software. GPLv3 has been used
+since around 2008 to help fight for our freedom. All rsyslog core
+programs are released under GPLv3. But, from the beginning on, plugins
+were separate projects and we did not impose and license restrictions on
+them. So even though all plugins that currently ship with the rsyslog
+package are also placed under GPLv3, this can not taken for granted. You
+need to check each plugins license terms if in question - this is
+especially important for plugins that do NOT ship as part of the rsyslog
+tarball.
+
+In order to make rsyslog technology available to a broader range of
+applications, the rsyslog runtime is, at least partly, licensed under
+LGPL. If in doubt, check the source file licensing comments. As of now,
+the following files are licensed under LGPL:
+
+-  queue.c/.h
+-  wti.c/.h
+-  wtp.c/.h
+-  vm.c/.h
+-  vmop.c/.h
+-  vmprg.c/.h
+-  vmstk.c/.h
+-  expr.c/.h
+-  sysvar.c/.h
+-  ctok.c/.h
+-  ctok\_token.c/.h
+-  regexp.c/.h
+-  sync.c/.h
+-  stream.c/.h
+-  var.c/.h
+
+This list will change as time of the runtime modularization. At some
+point in the future, there will be a well-designed set of files inside a
+runtime library branch and all of these will be LGPL. Some select extras
+will probably still be covered by GPL. We are following a similar
+licensing model in GnuTLS, which makes effort to reserve some
+functionality exclusively to open source projects.