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1.12 deraadt 16: <p>
1.18 jufi 17: <h2><font color="#e00000">Copyright Policy</font></h2>
18: <hr>
1.12 deraadt 19:
1.31 naddy 20: <h3><font color="#e00000">Goal</font></h3><p>
1.1 grr 21:
22: Copyright law is complex, OpenBSD policy is simple - OpenBSD strives to
1.29 schwarze 23: provide code that can be freely used, copied, modified, and distributed
24: by anyone and for any purpose. This maintains the spirit of the original
25: Berkeley Software Distribution. The preferred wording of a license to be
26: applied to new code can be found in the
1.32 nick 27: <a href="http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/share/misc/license.template?rev=HEAD">license template</a>.
1.1 grr 28: <p>
1.12 deraadt 29:
1.3 grr 30: OpenBSD can exist as it does today because of the example set by the
31: Computer Systems Research Group at Berkeley and the battles which they
1.29 schwarze 32: and others fought to create a Unix source distribution un-encumbered
33: by proprietary code and commercial licensing.
1.3 grr 34: <p>
1.12 deraadt 35:
1.11 millert 36: The ability of a <strong>freely redistributable</strong> "Berkeley" Unix
1.3 grr 37: to move forward on a competitive basis with other operating systems depends
38: on the willingness of the various development groups to exchange code amongst
39: themselves and with other projects.
1.4 deraadt 40: Understanding the legal issues surrounding copyright is fundamental to
1.3 grr 41: the ability to exchange and re-distribute code, while honoring the spirit of
42: the copyright and concept of attribution is fundamental to promoting the
43: cooperation of the people involved.
44: <p>
1.12 deraadt 45:
1.31 naddy 46: <h3><font color="#e00000">The Berkeley Copyright</font></h3><p>
1.12 deraadt 47:
1.29 schwarze 48: The original Berkeley copyright poses no restrictions on private or commercial
1.1 grr 49: use of the software and imposes only simple and uniform requirements
50: for maintaining copyright notices in redistributed versions and
51: crediting the originator of the material <strong>only</strong> in
52: advertising.
53: <p>
1.13 deraadt 54: For instance:
55: <p>
56: <pre>
57: * Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1993
58: * The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
59: *
60: * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
61: * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
62: * are met:
63: * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
64: * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
65: * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
66: * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
67: * documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
68: * 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
69: * must display the following acknowledgement:
70: * This product includes software developed by the University of
71: * California, Berkeley and its contributors.
72: * 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
73: * may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
74: * without specific prior written permission.
75: *
76: * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
77: * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
78: * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
79: * ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
80: * FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
81: * DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
82: * OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
83: * HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
84: * LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
85: * OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
86: * SUCH DAMAGE.
87: *
88: </pre>
89: <p>
1.19 millert 90: Berkeley rescinded the 3rd term (the advertising term) on 22 July 1999.
91: Verbatim copies of the Berkeley license in the OpenBSD tree have that
92: term removed. In addition, many 3rd-party BSD-style licenses consist
93: solely of the first two terms.
1.13 deraadt 94: <p>
1.3 grr 95: Because the OpenBSD copyright imposes no conditions beyond those
96: imposed by the Berkeley copyright, OpenBSD can hope to share the same
97: wide distribution and applicability as the Berkeley distributions.
1.19 millert 98: It follows however, that OpenBSD cannot include material which
1.3 grr 99: includes copyrights which are more restrictive than the Berkeley
100: copyright, or must relegate this material to a secondary status,
101: i.e. OpenBSD as a whole is freely redistributable, but some optional
102: components may not be.
103: <p>
1.12 deraadt 104:
1.31 naddy 105: <h3><font color="#e00000">Copyright Law</font></h3><p>
1.1 grr 106: While the overall subject of copyright law is far beyond the scope of
1.2 grr 107: this document, some basics are in order. Under the current copyright law,
1.1 grr 108: copyrights are implicit in the creation of a new work and reside with
1.29 schwarze 109: the creator. In general the copyright applies
1.1 grr 110: only to the new work, not the material the work was derived from, nor
111: those portions of the derivative material included in the new work.
112: <p>
1.12 deraadt 113:
1.1 grr 114: Copyright law admits to three general categories of works:
115: <dl>
1.14 jufi 116: <dt>Original Work
1.1 grr 117: <dd>A new work that is not derived from an existing work.
118: <dt>Derivative Work
119: <dd>Work that is derived from, includes or amends existing works.
120: <dt>Compilations
121: <dd>A work that is a compilation of existing new and derivative works.
122: </dl>
1.12 deraadt 123: <p>
124:
1.1 grr 125: The fundamental concept is that there is primacy of the copyright, that
1.10 espie 126: is a copyright of a derivative work does not affect the rights held by
1.1 grr 127: the owner of the copyright of the original work, rather only the part
128: added. Likewise the copyright of a compilation does not affect the rights
129: of the owner of the included works, only the compilation as an entity.
130: <p>
1.12 deraadt 131:
1.1 grr 132: It is vitally important to understand that copyrights are broad protections
1.3 grr 133: as defined by national and international copyright law. The "copyright
134: notices" usually included in source files are not copyrights, but rather
135: notices that a party asserts that they hold copyright to the material or
1.5 todd 136: to part of the material. Typically these notices are associated with
1.3 grr 137: license terms which grant permissions subject to copyright law and with
138: disclaimers that state the position of the copyright holder/distributor
139: with respect to liability surrounding use of the material.
1.12 deraadt 140: <p>
141:
1.29 schwarze 142: By international law, specifically the Berne Convention for the
143: Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, part of the author's
144: copyright, the so-called moral rights, are inalienable. This
145: includes the author's right "to claim authorship of the work and
146: to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of,
147: or other derogatory action in relation to, the said work, which
148: would be prejudicial to his honor or reputation". In some countries,
149: the law reserves additional inalienable moral rights to the author.
150: On the other hand, the author is free to transfer other parts
151: of his copyright, the so-called economic rights, in particular the
152: rights to use, copy, modify, distribute, and license the work.
153: <p>
154:
1.31 naddy 155: <h3><font color="#e00000">Permissions - the flip side</font></h3><p>
1.12 deraadt 156:
1.1 grr 157: Because copyrights arise from the creation of a work, rather than through
1.3 grr 158: a registration process, there needs to be a practical way to extend
1.16 jufi 159: permission to use a work beyond what might be allowed by "fair use"
1.1 grr 160: provisions of the copyright laws.
1.12 deraadt 161: <p>
162:
1.1 grr 163: This permission typically takes the form of a "release" or "license"
164: included in the work, which grants the additional uses beyond those
165: granted by copyright law, usually subject to a variety of conditions.
1.3 grr 166: At one extreme sits "public domain" where the originator asserts that
167: he imposes no restrictions on use of the material, at the other
168: restrictive clauses that actually grant no additional rights or impose
169: restrictive, discriminatory or impractical conditions on use of the work.
1.1 grr 170: <p>
1.29 schwarze 171:
172: Note that a license is not to be confused with a copyright transfer.
1.31 naddy 173: While a transfer would give the new copyright holder <em>exclusive</em>
1.29 schwarze 174: rights to use the code and take these rights away from the author,
175: a license typically grants <em>additional</em> people non-exclusive
176: rights to use the code, while the authors retain all their rights.
177: <p>
178:
179: The above observations regarding moral rights imply that putting
180: code under an ISC or two-clause BSD license essentially makes the
181: code as free as it can possibly get. Modifying the wording of these
182: licenses can only result in one of the three following effects:
183: <ul>
184: <li>making the code less free by adding additional restrictions
185: regarding its use, copying, modification or distribution;
186: <li>or effectively not changing anything by merely changing the wording,
187: but not changing anything substantial regarding the legal content;
188: <li>or making the license illegal by attempting to deprive the
189: authors of rights they cannot legally give away.
190: </ul><p>
1.12 deraadt 191:
1.3 grr 192: Again, an important point to note is that the release and conditions can
1.1 grr 193: only apply to the portion of the work that was originated by the copyright
1.31 naddy 194: holder—the holder of a copyright on a derivative work can neither
1.3 grr 195: grant additional permissions for use of the original work, nor impose more
196: restrictive conditions for use of that work.
1.1 grr 197: <p>
1.12 deraadt 198:
1.3 grr 199: Because copyright arises from the creation of a work and not the text
200: or a registration process, removing or altering a copyright notice or
1.10 espie 201: associated release terms has no bearing on the existence of the copyright,
1.20 jmc 202: rather all that is accomplished is to cast doubt upon whatever rights the
203: person making the modifications had to use the material in the first place.
204: Likewise, adding terms and conditions in conflict with the original terms
205: and conditions does not supersede them, rather it casts doubts on the rights
206: of the person making the amendments to use the material and creates confusion
207: as to whether anyone can use the amended version or derivatives thereof.
1.1 grr 208: <p>
1.12 deraadt 209:
1.1 grr 210: Finally, releases are generally binding on the material that they
211: are distributed with. This means that if the originator of a work distributes
212: that work with a release granting certain permissions, those permissions
213: apply as stated, without discrimination, to all persons legitimately
214: possessing a copy of the work. That means that having granted a permission,
215: the copyright holder can not retroactively say that an individual or class
216: of individuals are no longer granted those permissions. Likewise should
217: the copyright holder decide to "go commercial" he can not revoke permissions
218: already granted for the use of the work as distributed, though he may impose
219: more restrictive permissions in his future distributions of that work.
220: <p>
1.12 deraadt 221:
1.31 naddy 222: <h3><font color="#e00000">Specific Cases</font></h3><p>
1.12 deraadt 223:
1.1 grr 224: This section attempts to summarize the position of OpenBSD relative to
225: some commonly encountered copyrights.
1.12 deraadt 226: <p>
227:
1.1 grr 228: <dl>
229: <dt>Berkeley<dd><p>
230: The Berkeley copyright is the model for the OpenBSD copyright. It retains
231: the rights of the copyright holder, while imposing minimal conditions on
232: the use of the copyrighted material. Material with Berkeley copyrights,
1.3 grr 233: or copyrights closely adhering to the Berkeley model can generally be
234: included in OpenBSD.
1.12 deraadt 235: <p>
236:
1.1 grr 237: <dt>AT&T<dd><p>
1.19 millert 238: As part of its settlement with AT&T, Berkeley included an
239: AT&T copyright notice on some of the files in 4.4BSD lite and lite2.
240: The terms of this license are identical to the standard Berkeley license.
241: <p>
242: Additionally, OpenBSD includes some other AT&T code with non-restrictive
243: copyrights, such as the reference implementation of
244: <a href="http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/bwk/awk.tar.gz">awk</a>.
245: <p>
246:
247: <dt>Caldera<dd><p>
1.28 schwarze 248: The original Unix code (AT&T versions 1 through 7 UNIX, including 32V)
249: was freed by Caldera, Inc. on 23 January 2002 and is now available under a
1.19 millert 250: <a href="http://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Caldera-license.pdf">4-term BSD-style license</a>.
1.28 schwarze 251: As a result, it would theoretically be possible to incorporate original
1.31 naddy 252: Unix code into OpenBSD. However, that code is now so old that it does not
1.28 schwarze 253: satisfy today's interface and quality standards.
1.12 deraadt 254: <p>
255:
1.1 grr 256: <dt>DEC, Sun, other manufacturers/software houses.<dd><p>
257: In general OpenBSD does not include material copyrighted by manufacturers
258: or software houses. Material may be included where the copyright owner has
259: granted general permission for reuse without conditions, with terms similar
260: to the Berkeley copyright, or where the material is the product of an
1.8 d 261: employee and the employer's copyright notice effectively releases any
1.1 grr 262: rights they might have to the work.
1.12 deraadt 263: <p>
264:
1.1 grr 265: <dt>Carnegie-Mellon (CMU, Mach)<dd><p>
266: The Carnegie-Mellon copyright is similar to the Berkeley copyright, except
267: that it requests that derivative works be made available to Carnegie-Mellon.
268: Because this is only a request and not a condition, such material can still
269: be included in OpenBSD. It should be noted that existing versions of Mach
270: are still subject to AT&T copyrights, which prevents the general
271: distribution of Mach sources.
1.12 deraadt 272: <p>
273:
1.11 millert 274: <dt>Apache<dd><p>
1.28 schwarze 275: The original Apache license was similar to the Berkeley license,
276: but source code published under version 2 of the Apache license is
277: subject to additional restrictions and cannot be included into OpenBSD.
1.12 deraadt 278: <p>
279:
1.19 millert 280: <dt>ISC<dd><p>
281: The ISC copyright is functionally equivalent to a two-term BSD
282: copyright with language removed that is made unnecessary by the
283: Berne convention. This is the preferred license for new code
1.30 schwarze 284: incorporated into OpenBSD. A sample license is available in the file
1.32 nick 285: <a href="http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/share/misc/license.template?rev=HEAD">/usr/share/misc/license.template</a>.
1.19 millert 286: <p>
287:
1.3 grr 288: <dt>GNU General Public License, GPL, LGPL, copyleft, etc.<dd><p>
1.1 grr 289: The GNU Public License and licenses modeled on it impose the restriction
290: that source code must be distributed or made available for all works that
1.3 grr 291: are derivatives of the GNU copyrighted code.
1.28 schwarze 292:
1.3 grr 293: <p>
1.28 schwarze 294: While this may superficially look like a noble strategy, it is a
295: condition that is typically unacceptable for commercial use of software.
296: So in practice, it usually ends up hindering free sharing and reuse
297: of code and ideas rather than encouraging it.
298: As a consequence, no additional software bound by the GPL terms
299: will be considered for inclusion into the OpenBSD base system.
1.12 deraadt 300:
1.3 grr 301: <p>
1.28 schwarze 302: For historical reasons, the OpenBSD base system still includes the
303: following GPL-licensed components: the GNU compiler collection (GCC)
1.33 ! nick 304: with supporting binutils and libraries, GNU CVS, GNU texinfo,
! 305: the mkhybrid file system creation tool, and the
1.28 schwarze 306: readline library. Replacement by equivalent, more freely licensed
307: tools is a long-term desideratum.
1.3 grr 308: <p>
1.12 deraadt 309:
1.1 grr 310: <dt>NetBSD<dd><p>
1.5 todd 311: Much of OpenBSD is originally based on and evolved from NetBSD, since some
1.3 grr 312: of the OpenBSD developers were involved in the NetBSD project. The general
313: NetBSD license terms are compatible with the Berkeley license and permit
314: such use. Material subject <strong>only</strong> to the general NetBSD
315: license can generally be included in OpenBSD.
316: <p>
1.12 deraadt 317:
1.11 millert 318: In the past, NetBSD has included material copyrighted by individuals
319: who have imposed license conditions beyond that of the general
320: NetBSD license, but granted the NetBSD Foundation license to
321: distribute the material. Such material can not be included in
322: OpenBSD as long as the conditions imposed are at odds with the
323: OpenBSD license terms or releases from those terms are offered on
324: a discriminatory basis.
1.12 deraadt 325: <p>
326:
1.1 grr 327: <dt>FreeBSD<dd><p>
1.3 grr 328: Most of FreeBSD is also based on Berkeley licensed material or includes
1.2 grr 329: copyright notices based on the Berkeley model. Such material can be
1.3 grr 330: included in OpenBSD, while those parts that are subject to GPL or
331: various individual copyright terms that are at odds with the OpenBSD license
332: can not be included in OpenBSD.
1.12 deraadt 333: <p>
334:
1.1 grr 335: <dt>Linux<dd><p>
336: Most of Linux is subject to GPL style licensing terms and therefore
1.2 grr 337: can not be included in OpenBSD. Individual components may be eligible,
1.1 grr 338: subject to the terms of the originator's copyright notices. Note that
1.8 d 339: Linux "distributions" may also be subject to additional copyright claims
1.1 grr 340: of the distributing organization, either as a compilation or on material
1.3 grr 341: included that is not part of the Linux core.
1.12 deraadt 342: <p>
343:
1.28 schwarze 344: <dt>X.Org<dd><p>
345: The X.Org Foundation maintains and distributes the X Window System
346: under a modified MIT license, which is quite similar to the BSD
347: license and additionally allows sublicensing. Under the name of
348: Xenocara, the OpenBSD base system includes an improved and actively
349: maintained version of the X.Org code.
1.12 deraadt 350: <p>
351:
1.1 grr 352: <dt>Shareware, Charityware, Freeware, etc.<dd><p>
353: Most "shareware" copyright notices impose conditions for redistribution,
354: use or visibility that are at conflict with the OpenBSD project goals.
355: Review on a case-by-case basis is required as to whether the wording
1.2 grr 356: of the conditions is acceptable in terms of conditions being requested vs.
1.1 grr 357: demanded and whether the spirit of the conditions is compatible with
1.2 grr 358: goals of the OpenBSD project.
1.12 deraadt 359: <p>
360:
1.1 grr 361: <dt>Public Domain<dd><p>
1.31 naddy 362: While material that is truly entered into the "public domain" can be
1.1 grr 363: included in OpenBSD, review is required on a case by case basis.
1.3 grr 364: Frequently the "public domain" assertion is made by someone who does
1.31 naddy 365: not really hold all rights under copyright law to grant that status or
1.1 grr 366: there are a variety of conditions imposed on use. For a work to be
1.31 naddy 367: truly in the "public domain" all rights are abandoned and the material
1.3 grr 368: is offered without restrictions.
1.12 deraadt 369: <p>
1.28 schwarze 370:
371: In some jurisdictions, it is doubtful whether voluntarily placing
372: one's own work into the public domain is legally possible.
373: For that reason, to make any substantial body of code free,
374: it is preferable to state the copyright and put it under an ISC
375: or BSD license instead of attempting to release it into the public
376: domain.
1.12 deraadt 377:
378: </dl>
1.1 grr 379:
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381: </html>