From: bangerth Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:38:34 +0000 (+0000) Subject: Rewrite the license preamble. X-Git-Url: https://gitweb.dealii.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=6cdac128b957cd7c5ddbc6e0807f571c061c8d5a;p=dealii-svn.git Rewrite the license preamble. git-svn-id: https://svn.dealii.org/trunk@14100 0785d39b-7218-0410-832d-ea1e28bc413d --- diff --git a/deal.II/doc/license.html b/deal.II/doc/license.html index 4f347779a3..321dfbb86b 100644 --- a/deal.II/doc/license.html +++ b/deal.II/doc/license.html @@ -13,107 +13,150 @@ -

deal.II-license for non-commercial use

+

The deal.II license

- For non-commercial purposes, the - deal.II library has been placed under an Open Source + The deal.II library has been placed under an Open Source license, in the sense advocated by the Open Source Initiative. You are thus free to copy and use it, and you have free access to all source codes. However, deal.II - is not in the public domain, it is property of the - deal.II authors. Some parts of the library are by other - persons, and are marked with their names. Also, note that parts of - the files in the contrib/ subdirectory are by other - people, and are distributed under separate licenses; in particular, - you will find parts of the BOOST - library in this directory, and deal.II comes with a copy of UMFPACK - and one of FunctionParser, courtesy of their authors. UMFPACK and FunctionParser - are covered by their own licenses; please refer to the - UMFPACK and - FunctionParser - webpages to read them. The files of these external libraries are not part of - deal.II, but are only distributed together; - please refer to the webpages of these projects for further - information on license questions. In particular, if you do not agree - with the conditions of the licenses of these external libraries, you - may not use these components of our distribution. -

+ is not in the public domain, it is property of and copyrighted by the + deal.II authors, and there are restrictions on + its use. The legally binding license is + given at the bottom of this page. + Furthermore, deal.II distributions come bundled with some third + party software for which the deal.II authors do not own the + copyright. The licenses of these parts are discussed below.

- deal.II is distributed under the Q Public License - (or "QPL"), which qualifies as an Open Source - license. It is thus appropriate for people wishing to write - software under the Open Source model where all source code to the - software is made available to all users and can be freely modified - and redistributed. QPL was originally developed by - Troll Tech for their - Qt program library, but has since gained some support by other - library authors as well. + In this document, as well as in the program files, the terms + authors of deal.II and + deal.II authors generally refer to the + principal authors of the library. These are presently Wolfgang + Bangerth, Guido Kanschat and Ralf Hartmann.

+ + +

Restrictions on and commercial use of the library

+

- The QPL prohibits development of proprietary software. If you intend - to develop commercial software based on deal.II, - we are willing to negotiate a suitable agreement. Feel free to - contact us in this case. -

+ + deal.II is distributed under the Open Source + license called the Q Public License (or "QPL") listed + in full below. Essentially, an interpretation of this license is + that you can use the library free of charge for developing your own + programs. However, if you plan to distribute these programs to others, + certain restrictions are imposed by the QPL. + +

+ + In non-legal terms, the license stipulates that if you want + to give your program to someone else in whatever form (including as + a binary executable), you have to make the entire source code of + your own program and all modifications to the deal.II library + available free of charge as well.

- For more information on the QPL, please see also the following - links: -
-     -     - Annotated version -     - Plain text version -     - Announcement -     - Comments -

+ We recognize that giving away the source code may be an + unacceptable restriction in a commercial setting. As the owners of + the sources, we are able to grant you a differently licensed version + of the deal.II library that does not contain this + requirement, and we are very much willing to negotiate the terms of + such a license. Please contact the authors of the library if you are + interested in commercial use of deal.II. + + + +

Referencing the library

- In addition to the terms imposed by the QPL, we have one restriction - on the use of the library: + In addition to the terms imposed by the QPL, we ask for the + following courtesy:

+ This is the usual, fair way of giving credit to contributors to a + scientific result. In addition, it helps us justify our effort in + developing deal.II as an academic undertaking.

- In this document, as well as in the program files, the terms - authors of deal.II and - deal.II authors generally refer to the - principal authors of the library. These are presently Wolfgang - Bangerth, Guido Kanschat and Ralf Hartmann. -

+ + We keep a list of publications + using deal.II. Feel free to let us know about your publications. + + + +

Parts of the deal.II distribution under a separate license

+
+ + Some of the files in the contrib/ subdirectory are by + other people, and are distributed under separate licenses. These + files are not part of the deal.II library, but + they are distributed together. They are generally available for use + in non-commercial academic settings. For commercial use and if you + want to distribute your codes, please consult the licenses of these + parts of the deal.II distribution. + +

+ + In particular, these are libraries that we distribute in the + contrib/ subdirectory, courtesy of their authors: +

- Please note that deal.II can interface with a number of deal.II can interface with a number of other packages that you have to install yourself. They are, of course, covered by their own licenses.

+ +

About the license

+ +

+ The QPL was originally developed by + Troll Tech for their + Qt program library, but has since gained some support by other + library authors as well. + For more information on the QPL, please also consult the following + links: +
+     +     + Annotated version +     + Plain text version +

+ + +
+

+ THE Q PUBLIC LICENSE version 1.0