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Diffstat (limited to 'COPYING')
| -rw-r--r-- | COPYING | 103 |
1 files changed, 55 insertions, 48 deletions
@@ -3,74 +3,81 @@ XZ Utils Licensing ================== Different licenses apply to different files in this package. Here - is a rough summary of which licenses apply to which parts of this - package (but check the individual files to be sure!): + is a summary of which licenses apply to which parts of this package: - - liblzma is in the public domain. + - liblzma is under the BSD Zero Clause License (0BSD). - - xz, xzdec, and lzmadec command line tools are in the public - domain unless GNU getopt_long had to be compiled and linked - in from the lib directory. The getopt_long code is under - GNU LGPLv2.1+. + - The command line tools xz, xzdec, lzmadec, and lzmainfo are + under 0BSD except that, on systems that don't have a usable + getopt_long, GNU getopt_long is compiled and linked in from the + 'lib' directory. The getopt_long code is under GNU LGPLv2.1+. - The scripts to grep, diff, and view compressed files have been - adapted from gzip. These scripts and their documentation are - under GNU GPLv2+. + adapted from GNU gzip. These scripts (xzgrep, xzdiff, xzless, + and xzmore) are under GNU GPLv2+. The man pages of the scripts + are under 0BSD; they aren't based on the man pages of GNU gzip. - - All the documentation in the doc directory and most of the - XZ Utils specific documentation files in other directories - are in the public domain. + - Most of the XZ Utils specific documentation that is in + plain text files (like README, INSTALL, PACKAGERS, NEWS, + and ChangeLog) are under 0BSD unless stated otherwise in + the file itself. The files xz-file-format.txt and + lzma-file-format.xt are in the public domain but may + be distributed under the terms of 0BSD too. - Note: The JavaScript files (under the MIT license) have - been removed from the Doxygen-generated HTML version of the - liblzma API documentation. Doxygen itself is under the GNU GPL - but the remaining files generated by Doxygen are not affected - by the licenses used in Doxygen because Doxygen licensing has - the following exception: + - Translated messages and man pages are under 0BSD except that + some old translations are in the public domain. - "Documents produced by doxygen are derivative works - derived from the input used in their production; - they are not affected by this license." + - Test files and test code in the 'tests' directory, and + debugging utilities in the 'debug' directory are under + the BSD Zero Clause License (0BSD). - - Translated messages are in the public domain. + - The GNU Autotools based build system contains files that are + under GNU GPLv2+, GNU GPLv3+, and a few permissive licenses. + These files don't affect the licensing of the binaries being + built. - - The build system contains public domain files, and files that - are under GNU GPLv2+ or GNU GPLv3+. None of these files end up - in the binaries being built. + - The 'extra' directory contains files that are under various + free software licenses. These aren't built or installed as + part of XZ Utils. - - Test files and test code in the tests directory, and debugging - utilities in the debug directory are in the public domain. + For the files under the BSD Zero Clause License (0BSD), if + a copyright notice is needed, the following is sufficient: - - The extra directory may contain public domain files, and files - that are under various free software licenses. + Copyright (C) The XZ Utils authors and contributors - You can do whatever you want with the files that have been put into - the public domain. If you find public domain legally problematic, - take the previous sentence as a license grant. If you still find - the lack of copyright legally problematic, you have too many - lawyers. - - As usual, this software is provided "as is", without any warranty. - - If you copy significant amounts of public domain code from XZ Utils + If you copy significant amounts of 0BSD-licensed code from XZ Utils into your project, acknowledging this somewhere in your software is polite (especially if it is proprietary, non-free software), but - naturally it is not legally required. Here is an example of a good - notice to put into "about box" or into documentation: + it is not legally required by the license terms. Here is an example + of a good notice to put into "about box" or into documentation: This software includes code from XZ Utils <https://tukaani.org/xz/>. The following license texts are included in the following files: + - COPYING.0BSD: BSD Zero Clause License - COPYING.LGPLv2.1: GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 - COPYING.GPLv2: GNU General Public License version 2 - COPYING.GPLv3: GNU General Public License version 3 - Note that the toolchain (compiler, linker etc.) may add some code - pieces that are copyrighted. Thus, it is possible that e.g. liblzma - binary wouldn't actually be in the public domain in its entirety - even though it contains no copyrighted code from the XZ Utils source - package. - - If you have questions, don't hesitate to ask the author(s) for more - information. + A note about old XZ Utils releases: + + XZ Utils releases 5.4.6 and older and 5.5.1alpha have a + significant amount of code put into the public domain and + that obviously remains so. The switch from public domain to + 0BSD for newer releases was made in Febrary 2024 because + public domain has (real or perceived) legal ambiguities in + some jurisdictions. + + There is very little *practical* difference between public + domain and 0BSD. The main difference likely is that one + shouldn't claim that 0BSD-licensed code is in the public + domain; 0BSD-licensed code is copyrighted but available under + an extremely permissive license. Neither 0BSD nor public domain + require retaining or reproducing author, copyright holder, or + license notices when distributing the software. (Compare to, + for example, BSD 2-Clause "Simplified" License which does have + such requirements.) + + If you have questions, don't hesitate to ask for more information. + The contact information is in the README file. |