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1.12 deraadt 14: <p>
1.18 jufi 15: <h2><font color="#e00000">Copyright Policy</font></h2>
16: <hr>
1.12 deraadt 17:
1.31 naddy 18: <h3><font color="#e00000">Goal</font></h3><p>
1.1 grr 19:
20: Copyright law is complex, OpenBSD policy is simple - OpenBSD strives to
1.29 schwarze 21: provide code that can be freely used, copied, modified, and distributed
22: by anyone and for any purpose. This maintains the spirit of the original
23: Berkeley Software Distribution. The preferred wording of a license to be
24: applied to new code can be found in the
1.32 nick 25: <a href="http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/share/misc/license.template?rev=HEAD">license template</a>.
1.1 grr 26: <p>
1.12 deraadt 27:
1.3 grr 28: OpenBSD can exist as it does today because of the example set by the
29: Computer Systems Research Group at Berkeley and the battles which they
1.29 schwarze 30: and others fought to create a Unix source distribution un-encumbered
31: by proprietary code and commercial licensing.
1.3 grr 32: <p>
1.12 deraadt 33:
1.11 millert 34: The ability of a <strong>freely redistributable</strong> "Berkeley" Unix
1.3 grr 35: to move forward on a competitive basis with other operating systems depends
36: on the willingness of the various development groups to exchange code amongst
37: themselves and with other projects.
1.4 deraadt 38: Understanding the legal issues surrounding copyright is fundamental to
1.3 grr 39: the ability to exchange and re-distribute code, while honoring the spirit of
40: the copyright and concept of attribution is fundamental to promoting the
41: cooperation of the people involved.
42: <p>
1.12 deraadt 43:
1.31 naddy 44: <h3><font color="#e00000">The Berkeley Copyright</font></h3><p>
1.12 deraadt 45:
1.29 schwarze 46: The original Berkeley copyright poses no restrictions on private or commercial
1.1 grr 47: use of the software and imposes only simple and uniform requirements
48: for maintaining copyright notices in redistributed versions and
49: crediting the originator of the material <strong>only</strong> in
50: advertising.
51: <p>
1.13 deraadt 52: For instance:
53: <p>
54: <pre>
55: * Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1993
56: * The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
57: *
58: * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
59: * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
60: * are met:
61: * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
62: * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
63: * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
64: * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
65: * documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
66: * 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
67: * must display the following acknowledgement:
68: * This product includes software developed by the University of
69: * California, Berkeley and its contributors.
70: * 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
71: * may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
72: * without specific prior written permission.
73: *
74: * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
75: * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
76: * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
77: * ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
78: * FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
79: * DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
80: * OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
81: * HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
82: * LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
83: * OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
84: * SUCH DAMAGE.
85: *
86: </pre>
87: <p>
1.19 millert 88: Berkeley rescinded the 3rd term (the advertising term) on 22 July 1999.
89: Verbatim copies of the Berkeley license in the OpenBSD tree have that
90: term removed. In addition, many 3rd-party BSD-style licenses consist
91: solely of the first two terms.
1.13 deraadt 92: <p>
1.3 grr 93: Because the OpenBSD copyright imposes no conditions beyond those
94: imposed by the Berkeley copyright, OpenBSD can hope to share the same
95: wide distribution and applicability as the Berkeley distributions.
1.19 millert 96: It follows however, that OpenBSD cannot include material which
1.3 grr 97: includes copyrights which are more restrictive than the Berkeley
98: copyright, or must relegate this material to a secondary status,
99: i.e. OpenBSD as a whole is freely redistributable, but some optional
100: components may not be.
101: <p>
1.12 deraadt 102:
1.31 naddy 103: <h3><font color="#e00000">Copyright Law</font></h3><p>
1.1 grr 104: While the overall subject of copyright law is far beyond the scope of
1.2 grr 105: this document, some basics are in order. Under the current copyright law,
1.1 grr 106: copyrights are implicit in the creation of a new work and reside with
1.29 schwarze 107: the creator. In general the copyright applies
1.1 grr 108: only to the new work, not the material the work was derived from, nor
109: those portions of the derivative material included in the new work.
110: <p>
1.12 deraadt 111:
1.1 grr 112: Copyright law admits to three general categories of works:
113: <dl>
1.14 jufi 114: <dt>Original Work
1.1 grr 115: <dd>A new work that is not derived from an existing work.
116: <dt>Derivative Work
117: <dd>Work that is derived from, includes or amends existing works.
118: <dt>Compilations
119: <dd>A work that is a compilation of existing new and derivative works.
120: </dl>
1.12 deraadt 121: <p>
122:
1.1 grr 123: The fundamental concept is that there is primacy of the copyright, that
1.10 espie 124: is a copyright of a derivative work does not affect the rights held by
1.1 grr 125: the owner of the copyright of the original work, rather only the part
126: added. Likewise the copyright of a compilation does not affect the rights
127: of the owner of the included works, only the compilation as an entity.
128: <p>
1.12 deraadt 129:
1.1 grr 130: It is vitally important to understand that copyrights are broad protections
1.3 grr 131: as defined by national and international copyright law. The "copyright
132: notices" usually included in source files are not copyrights, but rather
133: notices that a party asserts that they hold copyright to the material or
1.5 todd 134: to part of the material. Typically these notices are associated with
1.3 grr 135: license terms which grant permissions subject to copyright law and with
136: disclaimers that state the position of the copyright holder/distributor
137: with respect to liability surrounding use of the material.
1.12 deraadt 138: <p>
139:
1.29 schwarze 140: By international law, specifically the Berne Convention for the
141: Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, part of the author's
142: copyright, the so-called moral rights, are inalienable. This
143: includes the author's right "to claim authorship of the work and
144: to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of,
145: or other derogatory action in relation to, the said work, which
146: would be prejudicial to his honor or reputation". In some countries,
147: the law reserves additional inalienable moral rights to the author.
148: On the other hand, the author is free to transfer other parts
149: of his copyright, the so-called economic rights, in particular the
150: rights to use, copy, modify, distribute, and license the work.
151: <p>
152:
1.31 naddy 153: <h3><font color="#e00000">Permissions - the flip side</font></h3><p>
1.12 deraadt 154:
1.1 grr 155: Because copyrights arise from the creation of a work, rather than through
1.3 grr 156: a registration process, there needs to be a practical way to extend
1.16 jufi 157: permission to use a work beyond what might be allowed by "fair use"
1.1 grr 158: provisions of the copyright laws.
1.12 deraadt 159: <p>
160:
1.1 grr 161: This permission typically takes the form of a "release" or "license"
162: included in the work, which grants the additional uses beyond those
163: granted by copyright law, usually subject to a variety of conditions.
1.3 grr 164: At one extreme sits "public domain" where the originator asserts that
165: he imposes no restrictions on use of the material, at the other
166: restrictive clauses that actually grant no additional rights or impose
167: restrictive, discriminatory or impractical conditions on use of the work.
1.1 grr 168: <p>
1.29 schwarze 169:
170: Note that a license is not to be confused with a copyright transfer.
1.31 naddy 171: While a transfer would give the new copyright holder <em>exclusive</em>
1.29 schwarze 172: rights to use the code and take these rights away from the author,
173: a license typically grants <em>additional</em> people non-exclusive
174: rights to use the code, while the authors retain all their rights.
175: <p>
176:
177: The above observations regarding moral rights imply that putting
178: code under an ISC or two-clause BSD license essentially makes the
179: code as free as it can possibly get. Modifying the wording of these
180: licenses can only result in one of the three following effects:
181: <ul>
182: <li>making the code less free by adding additional restrictions
183: regarding its use, copying, modification or distribution;
184: <li>or effectively not changing anything by merely changing the wording,
185: but not changing anything substantial regarding the legal content;
186: <li>or making the license illegal by attempting to deprive the
187: authors of rights they cannot legally give away.
188: </ul><p>
1.12 deraadt 189:
1.3 grr 190: Again, an important point to note is that the release and conditions can
1.1 grr 191: only apply to the portion of the work that was originated by the copyright
1.31 naddy 192: holder—the holder of a copyright on a derivative work can neither
1.3 grr 193: grant additional permissions for use of the original work, nor impose more
194: restrictive conditions for use of that work.
1.1 grr 195: <p>
1.12 deraadt 196:
1.3 grr 197: Because copyright arises from the creation of a work and not the text
198: or a registration process, removing or altering a copyright notice or
1.10 espie 199: associated release terms has no bearing on the existence of the copyright,
1.20 jmc 200: rather all that is accomplished is to cast doubt upon whatever rights the
201: person making the modifications had to use the material in the first place.
202: Likewise, adding terms and conditions in conflict with the original terms
203: and conditions does not supersede them, rather it casts doubts on the rights
204: of the person making the amendments to use the material and creates confusion
205: as to whether anyone can use the amended version or derivatives thereof.
1.1 grr 206: <p>
1.12 deraadt 207:
1.1 grr 208: Finally, releases are generally binding on the material that they
209: are distributed with. This means that if the originator of a work distributes
210: that work with a release granting certain permissions, those permissions
211: apply as stated, without discrimination, to all persons legitimately
212: possessing a copy of the work. That means that having granted a permission,
213: the copyright holder can not retroactively say that an individual or class
214: of individuals are no longer granted those permissions. Likewise should
215: the copyright holder decide to "go commercial" he can not revoke permissions
216: already granted for the use of the work as distributed, though he may impose
217: more restrictive permissions in his future distributions of that work.
218: <p>
1.12 deraadt 219:
1.31 naddy 220: <h3><font color="#e00000">Specific Cases</font></h3><p>
1.12 deraadt 221:
1.1 grr 222: This section attempts to summarize the position of OpenBSD relative to
223: some commonly encountered copyrights.
1.12 deraadt 224: <p>
225:
1.1 grr 226: <dl>
227: <dt>Berkeley<dd><p>
228: The Berkeley copyright is the model for the OpenBSD copyright. It retains
229: the rights of the copyright holder, while imposing minimal conditions on
230: the use of the copyrighted material. Material with Berkeley copyrights,
1.3 grr 231: or copyrights closely adhering to the Berkeley model can generally be
232: included in OpenBSD.
1.12 deraadt 233: <p>
234:
1.1 grr 235: <dt>AT&T<dd><p>
1.19 millert 236: As part of its settlement with AT&T, Berkeley included an
237: AT&T copyright notice on some of the files in 4.4BSD lite and lite2.
238: The terms of this license are identical to the standard Berkeley license.
239: <p>
240: Additionally, OpenBSD includes some other AT&T code with non-restrictive
241: copyrights, such as the reference implementation of
242: <a href="http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/bwk/awk.tar.gz">awk</a>.
243: <p>
244:
245: <dt>Caldera<dd><p>
1.28 schwarze 246: The original Unix code (AT&T versions 1 through 7 UNIX, including 32V)
247: was freed by Caldera, Inc. on 23 January 2002 and is now available under a
1.19 millert 248: <a href="http://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Caldera-license.pdf">4-term BSD-style license</a>.
1.28 schwarze 249: As a result, it would theoretically be possible to incorporate original
1.31 naddy 250: Unix code into OpenBSD. However, that code is now so old that it does not
1.28 schwarze 251: satisfy today's interface and quality standards.
1.12 deraadt 252: <p>
253:
1.1 grr 254: <dt>DEC, Sun, other manufacturers/software houses.<dd><p>
255: In general OpenBSD does not include material copyrighted by manufacturers
256: or software houses. Material may be included where the copyright owner has
257: granted general permission for reuse without conditions, with terms similar
258: to the Berkeley copyright, or where the material is the product of an
1.8 d 259: employee and the employer's copyright notice effectively releases any
1.1 grr 260: rights they might have to the work.
1.12 deraadt 261: <p>
262:
1.1 grr 263: <dt>Carnegie-Mellon (CMU, Mach)<dd><p>
264: The Carnegie-Mellon copyright is similar to the Berkeley copyright, except
265: that it requests that derivative works be made available to Carnegie-Mellon.
266: Because this is only a request and not a condition, such material can still
267: be included in OpenBSD. It should be noted that existing versions of Mach
268: are still subject to AT&T copyrights, which prevents the general
269: distribution of Mach sources.
1.12 deraadt 270: <p>
271:
1.11 millert 272: <dt>Apache<dd><p>
1.28 schwarze 273: The original Apache license was similar to the Berkeley license,
274: but source code published under version 2 of the Apache license is
275: subject to additional restrictions and cannot be included into OpenBSD.
1.12 deraadt 276: <p>
277:
1.19 millert 278: <dt>ISC<dd><p>
279: The ISC copyright is functionally equivalent to a two-term BSD
280: copyright with language removed that is made unnecessary by the
281: Berne convention. This is the preferred license for new code
1.30 schwarze 282: incorporated into OpenBSD. A sample license is available in the file
1.32 nick 283: <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 284: <p>
285:
1.3 grr 286: <dt>GNU General Public License, GPL, LGPL, copyleft, etc.<dd><p>
1.1 grr 287: The GNU Public License and licenses modeled on it impose the restriction
288: that source code must be distributed or made available for all works that
1.3 grr 289: are derivatives of the GNU copyrighted code.
1.28 schwarze 290:
1.3 grr 291: <p>
1.28 schwarze 292: While this may superficially look like a noble strategy, it is a
293: condition that is typically unacceptable for commercial use of software.
294: So in practice, it usually ends up hindering free sharing and reuse
295: of code and ideas rather than encouraging it.
296: As a consequence, no additional software bound by the GPL terms
297: will be considered for inclusion into the OpenBSD base system.
1.12 deraadt 298:
1.3 grr 299: <p>
1.28 schwarze 300: For historical reasons, the OpenBSD base system still includes the
301: following GPL-licensed components: the GNU compiler collection (GCC)
1.33 nick 302: with supporting binutils and libraries, GNU CVS, GNU texinfo,
303: the mkhybrid file system creation tool, and the
1.28 schwarze 304: readline library. Replacement by equivalent, more freely licensed
305: tools is a long-term desideratum.
1.3 grr 306: <p>
1.12 deraadt 307:
1.1 grr 308: <dt>NetBSD<dd><p>
1.5 todd 309: Much of OpenBSD is originally based on and evolved from NetBSD, since some
1.3 grr 310: of the OpenBSD developers were involved in the NetBSD project. The general
311: NetBSD license terms are compatible with the Berkeley license and permit
312: such use. Material subject <strong>only</strong> to the general NetBSD
313: license can generally be included in OpenBSD.
314: <p>
1.12 deraadt 315:
1.11 millert 316: In the past, NetBSD has included material copyrighted by individuals
317: who have imposed license conditions beyond that of the general
318: NetBSD license, but granted the NetBSD Foundation license to
319: distribute the material. Such material can not be included in
320: OpenBSD as long as the conditions imposed are at odds with the
321: OpenBSD license terms or releases from those terms are offered on
322: a discriminatory basis.
1.12 deraadt 323: <p>
324:
1.1 grr 325: <dt>FreeBSD<dd><p>
1.3 grr 326: Most of FreeBSD is also based on Berkeley licensed material or includes
1.2 grr 327: copyright notices based on the Berkeley model. Such material can be
1.3 grr 328: included in OpenBSD, while those parts that are subject to GPL or
329: various individual copyright terms that are at odds with the OpenBSD license
330: can not be included in OpenBSD.
1.12 deraadt 331: <p>
332:
1.1 grr 333: <dt>Linux<dd><p>
334: Most of Linux is subject to GPL style licensing terms and therefore
1.2 grr 335: can not be included in OpenBSD. Individual components may be eligible,
1.1 grr 336: subject to the terms of the originator's copyright notices. Note that
1.8 d 337: Linux "distributions" may also be subject to additional copyright claims
1.1 grr 338: of the distributing organization, either as a compilation or on material
1.3 grr 339: included that is not part of the Linux core.
1.12 deraadt 340: <p>
341:
1.28 schwarze 342: <dt>X.Org<dd><p>
343: The X.Org Foundation maintains and distributes the X Window System
344: under a modified MIT license, which is quite similar to the BSD
345: license and additionally allows sublicensing. Under the name of
346: Xenocara, the OpenBSD base system includes an improved and actively
347: maintained version of the X.Org code.
1.12 deraadt 348: <p>
349:
1.1 grr 350: <dt>Shareware, Charityware, Freeware, etc.<dd><p>
351: Most "shareware" copyright notices impose conditions for redistribution,
352: use or visibility that are at conflict with the OpenBSD project goals.
353: Review on a case-by-case basis is required as to whether the wording
1.2 grr 354: of the conditions is acceptable in terms of conditions being requested vs.
1.1 grr 355: demanded and whether the spirit of the conditions is compatible with
1.2 grr 356: goals of the OpenBSD project.
1.12 deraadt 357: <p>
358:
1.1 grr 359: <dt>Public Domain<dd><p>
1.31 naddy 360: While material that is truly entered into the "public domain" can be
1.1 grr 361: included in OpenBSD, review is required on a case by case basis.
1.3 grr 362: Frequently the "public domain" assertion is made by someone who does
1.31 naddy 363: not really hold all rights under copyright law to grant that status or
1.1 grr 364: there are a variety of conditions imposed on use. For a work to be
1.31 naddy 365: truly in the "public domain" all rights are abandoned and the material
1.3 grr 366: is offered without restrictions.
1.12 deraadt 367: <p>
1.28 schwarze 368:
369: In some jurisdictions, it is doubtful whether voluntarily placing
370: one's own work into the public domain is legally possible.
371: For that reason, to make any substantial body of code free,
372: it is preferable to state the copyright and put it under an ISC
373: or BSD license instead of attempting to release it into the public
374: domain.
1.12 deraadt 375:
376: </dl>
1.1 grr 377:
378: </body>
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