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+++ b/COPYING
@@ -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.