Annotation of www/policy.html, Revision 1.1
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! 4: <title>OpenBSD Copyright Policy</title>
! 5: <link rev=made href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>
! 6: <meta name="resource-type" content="document">
! 7: <meta name="description" content="the OpenBSD copyright policy page">
! 8: <meta name="keywords" content="openbsd,copyright">
! 9: <meta name="distribution" content="global">
! 10: <meta name="copyright" content="This document copyright 1996 by OpenBSD.">
! 11: </head>
! 12:
! 13: <BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#23238E">
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! 15: <img alt="[OpenBSD]" SRC="images/smalltitle.gif">
! 16:
! 17: <h1>OpenBSD Copyright Policy</h1>
! 18: <p>
! 19: Copyright law is complex, OpenBSD policy is simple - OpenBSD strives to
! 20: maintain the spirit of the original Berkeley Unix copyrights.
! 21: </p>
! 22: <p>
! 23: The Berkeley copyright poses no restrictions on private or commercial
! 24: use of the software and imposes only simple and uniform requirements
! 25: for maintaining copyright notices in redistributed versions and
! 26: crediting the originator of the material <strong>only</strong> in
! 27: advertising.
! 28: </p>
! 29: <p>
! 30: While this means that OpenBSD is has the same broad applicability as
! 31: the material it was derived from, it also follows that OpenBSD can not
! 32: include some material which includes more restrictive copyrights, or
! 33: must limit it's scope - for example GPL style copyrights are not
! 34: acceptable for inclusion in the kernel or what would constitute a
! 35: "binary release" of OpenBSD.
! 36: </p>
! 37: <h3>Copyright Law</h3>
! 38: While the overall subject of copyright law is far beyond the scope of
! 39: this document, some basic are in order. Under the current copyright law,
! 40: copyrights are implicit in the creation of a new work and reside with
! 41: the creator, unless otherwise assigned. In general the copyright applies
! 42: only to the new work, not the material the work was derived from, nor
! 43: those portions of the derivative material included in the new work.
! 44: </p>
! 45: <p>
! 46: Copyright law admits to three general categories of works:
! 47: <dl>
! 48: </dt>Original Work
! 49: <dd>A new work that is not derived from an existing work.
! 50: <dt>Derivative Work
! 51: <dd>Work that is derived from, includes or amends existing works.
! 52: <dt>Compilations
! 53: <dd>A work that is a compilation of existing new and derivative works.
! 54: </dl>
! 55: The fundamental concept is that there is primacy of the copyright, that
! 56: is a copyright of a derivative work does not affect the rights held be
! 57: the owner of the copyright of the original work, rather only the part
! 58: added. Likewise the copyright of a compilation does not affect the rights
! 59: of the owner of the included works, only the compilation as an entity.
! 60: </p>
! 61: <p>
! 62: It is vitally important to understand that copyrights are broad protections
! 63: as defined by national and international copyright law, not assertions of
! 64: the copyright holder as to what might or might be copyrighted, nor the
! 65: conditions for use imposed by the copyright holder.
! 66: </p>
! 67: <h3>Permissions - the flip side</h3>
! 68: </p>
! 69: Because copyrights arise from the creation of a work, rather than through
! 70: a registration process, there needs to be a practical way to allow uses
! 71: permission to use a work beyond that which might be allowed by "fair use"
! 72: provisions of the copyright laws.
! 73: </p>
! 74: This permission typically takes the form of a "release" or "license"
! 75: included in the work, which grants the additional uses beyond those
! 76: granted by copyright law, usually subject to a variety of conditions.
! 77: At one extreme sits "public domain" where the originator
! 78: asserts that he imposes no restrictions on any use of the material, at
! 79: the other highly restrictive releases that actually grant no additional
! 80: rights or impose restrictive, discriminatory or impractical conditions on
! 81: use of the work.
! 82: </p>
! 83: <p>
! 84: Again, the important points to note are that the release and conditions can
! 85: only apply to the portion of the work that was originated by the copyright
! 86: holder - the holder of a copyright on a derivative work can neither
! 87: grant additional permissions for the original work, nor impose more restrictive
! 88: conditions for that work.
! 89: </p>
! 90: <p>
! 91: When a party asserting copyright rights removes prior copyright notices
! 92: or releases from a work, or attempts to impose permissions or conditions
! 93: that are in conflict with the permissions or conditions imposed by the
! 94: originator of the work, these conditions are not binding on the original
! 95: work. In fact, if their permissions or conditions are contrary to those
! 96: asserted by the copyright holder of the original work, that party is
! 97: probably setting up a situation where they no longer have permission to
! 98: use the work at all, let along impose conditions on its use.
! 99: </p>
! 100: <p>
! 101: Finally, releases are generally binding on the material that they
! 102: are distributed with. This means that if the originator of a work distributes
! 103: that work with a release granting certain permissions, those permissions
! 104: apply as stated, without discrimination, to all persons legitimately
! 105: possessing a copy of the work. That means that having granted a permission,
! 106: the copyright holder can not retroactively say that an individual or class
! 107: of individuals are no longer granted those permissions. Likewise should
! 108: the copyright holder decide to "go commercial" he can not revoke permissions
! 109: already granted for the use of the work as distributed, though he may impose
! 110: more restrictive permissions in his future distributions of that work.
! 111: </p>
! 112: <h3>Specific Cases</h3>
! 113: <p>
! 114: This section attempts to summarize the position of OpenBSD relative to
! 115: some commonly encountered copyrights.
! 116: </p>
! 117: <dl>
! 118: <dt>Berkeley<dd><p>
! 119: The Berkeley copyright is the model for the OpenBSD copyright. It retains
! 120: the rights of the copyright holder, while imposing minimal conditions on
! 121: the use of the copyrighted material. Material with Berkeley copyrights,
! 122: or copyrights closely adhering to the Berkeley model can generally be included
! 123: in OpenBSD.
! 124: </p>
! 125: <dt>AT&T<dd><p>
! 126: While AT&T holds the copyrights to much "unix" code and documentation,
! 127: OpenBSD is based largely on Berkeley (BAD) distributions that contain only
! 128: material known to be free of AT&T copyrights, or material to which
! 129: AT&T has abandoned it's copyright or included licensing terms similar
! 130: to the Berkeley terms. No material subject to restrictive AT&T
! 131: copyrights can be included in OpenBSD.
! 132: </p>
! 133: <dt>DEC, Sun, other manufacturers/software houses.<dd><p>
! 134: In general OpenBSD does not include material copyrighted by manufacturers
! 135: or software houses. Material may be included where the copyright owner has
! 136: granted general permission for reuse without conditions, with terms similar
! 137: to the Berkeley copyright, or where the material is the product of an
! 138: employee and the employer's copyright notice is effectively releases any
! 139: rights they might have to the work.
! 140: </p>
! 141: <dt>Carnegie-Mellon (CMU, Mach)<dd><p>
! 142: The Carnegie-Mellon copyright is similar to the Berkeley copyright, except
! 143: that it requests that derivative works be made available to Carnegie-Mellon.
! 144: Because this is only a request and not a condition, such material can still
! 145: be included in OpenBSD. It should be noted that existing versions of Mach
! 146: are still subject to AT&T copyrights, which prevents the general
! 147: distribution of Mach sources.
! 148: </p>
! 149: <dt>GNU General Public License, GPL, copyleft, etc.<dd><p>
! 150: The GNU Public License and licenses modeled on it impose the restriction
! 151: that source code must be distributed or made available for all works that
! 152: are derivatives of the GNU copyrighted code. While this may be a noble
! 153: goal in terms of software sharing, it is a condition that is typically
! 154: unacceptable for commercial use of software. As a consequence, software
! 155: bound by the GPL terms can not be included in the kernel or "runtime" of
! 156: of OpenBSD, though GPL tools may be included as development tools or as
! 157: part of the system at are "optional" and where there is no adequate substitute.
! 158: </p>
! 159: <dt>NetBSD<dd><p>
! 160: Much of OpenBSD is largely based on NetBSD, since some of the OpenBSD
! 161: developers were involved in the NetBSD project and the general NetBSD
! 162: license terms are compatible with the Berkeley license and permit such
! 163: use. Since that time, individuals associated with the NetBSD project
! 164: or the "NetBSD Foundation" have imposed stricter conditions on parts
! 165: of the NetBSD software. Regardless of the legality/propriety of this
! 166: action, material including such conditions or derivative of versions
! 167: material distributed subsequent imposing such conditions can not be
! 168: included in OpenBSD.
! 169: </p>
! 170: <dt>FreeBSD<dd><p>
! 171: Most of FreeBSD is also based on Berkeley licensed material or include
! 172: copyright notices based no the Berkeley model. Such material can be
! 173: included in OpenBSD, while parts that are subject to GPL or various
! 174: individual copyright terms can not be include in OpenBSD.
! 175: </p>
! 176: <dt>Linux<dd><p>
! 177: Most of Linux is subject to GPL style licensing terms and therefore
! 178: can not be included in OpenBSD. Individual components may be eligible
! 179: subject to the terms of the originator's copyright notices. Note that
! 180: Linux "distributions" may also be subject additional copyright claims
! 181: of the distributing organization, either as a compilation or on material
! 182: included that's not part of the Linux core.
! 183: </p>
! 184: <dt>Shareware, Charityware, Freeware, etc.<dd><p>
! 185: Most "shareware" copyright notices impose conditions for redistribution,
! 186: use or visibility that are at conflict with the OpenBSD project goals.
! 187: Review on a case-by-case basis is required as to whether the wording
! 188: of the conditions is acceptable in terms of things being requested or
! 189: demanded and whether the spirit of the conditions is compatible with
! 190: the OpenBSD project.
! 191: </p>
! 192: <dt>Public Domain<dd><p>
! 193: While material that is truly entered into the "Public Domain" can be
! 194: included in OpenBSD, review is required on a case by case basis.
! 195: Frequently "public domain" assertion is made by someone who does not
! 196: really hold all rights under Copyright law to grant that status, or
! 197: there are a variety of conditions imposed on use. For a work to be
! 198: truly in the "Public Domain" all rights are abandoned and it is offered
! 199: without restrictions.
! 200: </dl>
! 201:
! 202: <hr>
! 203: <a href=index.html><img src=back.gif border=0 alt=OpenBSD></a>
! 204: <a href=mailto:www@openbsd.org>www@openbsd.org</a>
! 205: <br><small>$OpenBSD$</small>
! 206:
! 207: </body>
! 208: </html>
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