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1.36 tb 16: <font color="#0000ff"><i>Open</i></font><font color="#000084">BSD</font></a>
17: <font color="#e00000">Copyright Policy</font>
18: </h2>
19: <hr>
1.12 deraadt 20: <p>
21:
1.31 naddy 22: <h3><font color="#e00000">Goal</font></h3><p>
1.1 grr 23:
24: Copyright law is complex, OpenBSD policy is simple - OpenBSD strives to
1.29 schwarze 25: provide code that can be freely used, copied, modified, and distributed
26: by anyone and for any purpose. This maintains the spirit of the original
27: Berkeley Software Distribution. The preferred wording of a license to be
28: applied to new code can be found in the
1.40 tb 29: <a href="https://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/share/misc/license.template?rev=HEAD">license template</a>.
1.1 grr 30: <p>
1.12 deraadt 31:
1.3 grr 32: OpenBSD can exist as it does today because of the example set by the
33: Computer Systems Research Group at Berkeley and the battles which they
1.29 schwarze 34: and others fought to create a Unix source distribution un-encumbered
35: by proprietary code and commercial licensing.
1.3 grr 36: <p>
1.12 deraadt 37:
1.11 millert 38: The ability of a <strong>freely redistributable</strong> "Berkeley" Unix
1.3 grr 39: to move forward on a competitive basis with other operating systems depends
40: on the willingness of the various development groups to exchange code amongst
41: themselves and with other projects.
1.4 deraadt 42: Understanding the legal issues surrounding copyright is fundamental to
1.3 grr 43: the ability to exchange and re-distribute code, while honoring the spirit of
44: the copyright and concept of attribution is fundamental to promoting the
45: cooperation of the people involved.
46: <p>
1.12 deraadt 47:
1.31 naddy 48: <h3><font color="#e00000">The Berkeley Copyright</font></h3><p>
1.12 deraadt 49:
1.29 schwarze 50: The original Berkeley copyright poses no restrictions on private or commercial
1.1 grr 51: use of the software and imposes only simple and uniform requirements
52: for maintaining copyright notices in redistributed versions and
53: crediting the originator of the material <strong>only</strong> in
54: advertising.
55: <p>
1.13 deraadt 56: For instance:
57: <p>
58: <pre>
59: * Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1993
60: * The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
61: *
62: * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
63: * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
64: * are met:
65: * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
66: * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
67: * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
68: * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
69: * documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
70: * 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
71: * must display the following acknowledgement:
72: * This product includes software developed by the University of
73: * California, Berkeley and its contributors.
74: * 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
75: * may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
76: * without specific prior written permission.
77: *
78: * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
79: * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
80: * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
81: * ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
82: * FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
83: * DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
84: * OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
85: * HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
86: * LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
87: * OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
88: * SUCH DAMAGE.
89: *
90: </pre>
91: <p>
1.19 millert 92: Berkeley rescinded the 3rd term (the advertising term) on 22 July 1999.
93: Verbatim copies of the Berkeley license in the OpenBSD tree have that
94: term removed. In addition, many 3rd-party BSD-style licenses consist
95: solely of the first two terms.
1.13 deraadt 96: <p>
1.3 grr 97: Because the OpenBSD copyright imposes no conditions beyond those
98: imposed by the Berkeley copyright, OpenBSD can hope to share the same
99: wide distribution and applicability as the Berkeley distributions.
1.19 millert 100: It follows however, that OpenBSD cannot include material which
1.3 grr 101: includes copyrights which are more restrictive than the Berkeley
102: copyright, or must relegate this material to a secondary status,
103: i.e. OpenBSD as a whole is freely redistributable, but some optional
104: components may not be.
105: <p>
1.12 deraadt 106:
1.31 naddy 107: <h3><font color="#e00000">Copyright Law</font></h3><p>
1.1 grr 108: While the overall subject of copyright law is far beyond the scope of
1.2 grr 109: this document, some basics are in order. Under the current copyright law,
1.1 grr 110: copyrights are implicit in the creation of a new work and reside with
1.29 schwarze 111: the creator. In general the copyright applies
1.1 grr 112: only to the new work, not the material the work was derived from, nor
113: those portions of the derivative material included in the new work.
114: <p>
1.12 deraadt 115:
1.1 grr 116: Copyright law admits to three general categories of works:
117: <dl>
1.14 jufi 118: <dt>Original Work
1.1 grr 119: <dd>A new work that is not derived from an existing work.
120: <dt>Derivative Work
121: <dd>Work that is derived from, includes or amends existing works.
122: <dt>Compilations
123: <dd>A work that is a compilation of existing new and derivative works.
124: </dl>
1.12 deraadt 125: <p>
126:
1.1 grr 127: The fundamental concept is that there is primacy of the copyright, that
1.10 espie 128: is a copyright of a derivative work does not affect the rights held by
1.1 grr 129: the owner of the copyright of the original work, rather only the part
130: added. Likewise the copyright of a compilation does not affect the rights
131: of the owner of the included works, only the compilation as an entity.
132: <p>
1.12 deraadt 133:
1.1 grr 134: It is vitally important to understand that copyrights are broad protections
1.3 grr 135: as defined by national and international copyright law. The "copyright
136: notices" usually included in source files are not copyrights, but rather
137: notices that a party asserts that they hold copyright to the material or
1.5 todd 138: to part of the material. Typically these notices are associated with
1.3 grr 139: license terms which grant permissions subject to copyright law and with
140: disclaimers that state the position of the copyright holder/distributor
141: with respect to liability surrounding use of the material.
1.12 deraadt 142: <p>
143:
1.29 schwarze 144: By international law, specifically the Berne Convention for the
145: Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, part of the author's
146: copyright, the so-called moral rights, are inalienable. This
147: includes the author's right "to claim authorship of the work and
148: to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of,
149: or other derogatory action in relation to, the said work, which
150: would be prejudicial to his honor or reputation". In some countries,
151: the law reserves additional inalienable moral rights to the author.
152: On the other hand, the author is free to transfer other parts
153: of his copyright, the so-called economic rights, in particular the
154: rights to use, copy, modify, distribute, and license the work.
155: <p>
156:
1.31 naddy 157: <h3><font color="#e00000">Permissions - the flip side</font></h3><p>
1.12 deraadt 158:
1.1 grr 159: Because copyrights arise from the creation of a work, rather than through
1.3 grr 160: a registration process, there needs to be a practical way to extend
1.16 jufi 161: permission to use a work beyond what might be allowed by "fair use"
1.1 grr 162: provisions of the copyright laws.
1.12 deraadt 163: <p>
164:
1.1 grr 165: This permission typically takes the form of a "release" or "license"
166: included in the work, which grants the additional uses beyond those
167: granted by copyright law, usually subject to a variety of conditions.
1.3 grr 168: At one extreme sits "public domain" where the originator asserts that
169: he imposes no restrictions on use of the material, at the other
170: restrictive clauses that actually grant no additional rights or impose
171: restrictive, discriminatory or impractical conditions on use of the work.
1.1 grr 172: <p>
1.29 schwarze 173:
174: Note that a license is not to be confused with a copyright transfer.
1.31 naddy 175: While a transfer would give the new copyright holder <em>exclusive</em>
1.29 schwarze 176: rights to use the code and take these rights away from the author,
177: a license typically grants <em>additional</em> people non-exclusive
178: rights to use the code, while the authors retain all their rights.
179: <p>
180:
181: The above observations regarding moral rights imply that putting
182: code under an ISC or two-clause BSD license essentially makes the
183: code as free as it can possibly get. Modifying the wording of these
184: licenses can only result in one of the three following effects:
185: <ul>
186: <li>making the code less free by adding additional restrictions
187: regarding its use, copying, modification or distribution;
188: <li>or effectively not changing anything by merely changing the wording,
189: but not changing anything substantial regarding the legal content;
190: <li>or making the license illegal by attempting to deprive the
191: authors of rights they cannot legally give away.
192: </ul><p>
1.12 deraadt 193:
1.3 grr 194: Again, an important point to note is that the release and conditions can
1.1 grr 195: only apply to the portion of the work that was originated by the copyright
1.31 naddy 196: holder—the holder of a copyright on a derivative work can neither
1.3 grr 197: grant additional permissions for use of the original work, nor impose more
198: restrictive conditions for use of that work.
1.1 grr 199: <p>
1.12 deraadt 200:
1.3 grr 201: Because copyright arises from the creation of a work and not the text
202: or a registration process, removing or altering a copyright notice or
1.10 espie 203: associated release terms has no bearing on the existence of the copyright,
1.20 jmc 204: rather all that is accomplished is to cast doubt upon whatever rights the
205: person making the modifications had to use the material in the first place.
206: Likewise, adding terms and conditions in conflict with the original terms
207: and conditions does not supersede them, rather it casts doubts on the rights
208: of the person making the amendments to use the material and creates confusion
209: as to whether anyone can use the amended version or derivatives thereof.
1.1 grr 210: <p>
1.12 deraadt 211:
1.1 grr 212: Finally, releases are generally binding on the material that they
213: are distributed with. This means that if the originator of a work distributes
214: that work with a release granting certain permissions, those permissions
215: apply as stated, without discrimination, to all persons legitimately
216: possessing a copy of the work. That means that having granted a permission,
217: the copyright holder can not retroactively say that an individual or class
218: of individuals are no longer granted those permissions. Likewise should
219: the copyright holder decide to "go commercial" he can not revoke permissions
220: already granted for the use of the work as distributed, though he may impose
221: more restrictive permissions in his future distributions of that work.
222: <p>
1.12 deraadt 223:
1.31 naddy 224: <h3><font color="#e00000">Specific Cases</font></h3><p>
1.12 deraadt 225:
1.1 grr 226: This section attempts to summarize the position of OpenBSD relative to
227: some commonly encountered copyrights.
1.12 deraadt 228: <p>
229:
1.1 grr 230: <dl>
231: <dt>Berkeley<dd><p>
232: The Berkeley copyright is the model for the OpenBSD copyright. It retains
233: the rights of the copyright holder, while imposing minimal conditions on
234: the use of the copyrighted material. Material with Berkeley copyrights,
1.3 grr 235: or copyrights closely adhering to the Berkeley model can generally be
236: included in OpenBSD.
1.12 deraadt 237: <p>
238:
1.1 grr 239: <dt>AT&T<dd><p>
1.19 millert 240: As part of its settlement with AT&T, Berkeley included an
241: AT&T copyright notice on some of the files in 4.4BSD lite and lite2.
242: The terms of this license are identical to the standard Berkeley license.
243: <p>
244: Additionally, OpenBSD includes some other AT&T code with non-restrictive
245: copyrights, such as the reference implementation of
246: <a href="http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/bwk/awk.tar.gz">awk</a>.
247: <p>
248:
249: <dt>Caldera<dd><p>
1.28 schwarze 250: The original Unix code (AT&T versions 1 through 7 UNIX, including 32V)
251: was freed by Caldera, Inc. on 23 January 2002 and is now available under a
1.19 millert 252: <a href="http://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Caldera-license.pdf">4-term BSD-style license</a>.
1.28 schwarze 253: As a result, it would theoretically be possible to incorporate original
1.31 naddy 254: Unix code into OpenBSD. However, that code is now so old that it does not
1.28 schwarze 255: satisfy today's interface and quality standards.
1.12 deraadt 256: <p>
257:
1.1 grr 258: <dt>DEC, Sun, other manufacturers/software houses.<dd><p>
259: In general OpenBSD does not include material copyrighted by manufacturers
260: or software houses. Material may be included where the copyright owner has
261: granted general permission for reuse without conditions, with terms similar
262: to the Berkeley copyright, or where the material is the product of an
1.8 d 263: employee and the employer's copyright notice effectively releases any
1.1 grr 264: rights they might have to the work.
1.12 deraadt 265: <p>
266:
1.1 grr 267: <dt>Carnegie-Mellon (CMU, Mach)<dd><p>
268: The Carnegie-Mellon copyright is similar to the Berkeley copyright, except
269: that it requests that derivative works be made available to Carnegie-Mellon.
270: Because this is only a request and not a condition, such material can still
271: be included in OpenBSD. It should be noted that existing versions of Mach
272: are still subject to AT&T copyrights, which prevents the general
273: distribution of Mach sources.
1.12 deraadt 274: <p>
275:
1.11 millert 276: <dt>Apache<dd><p>
1.28 schwarze 277: The original Apache license was similar to the Berkeley license,
278: but source code published under version 2 of the Apache license is
279: subject to additional restrictions and cannot be included into OpenBSD.
1.41 ! schwarze 280: In particular, if you use code under the Apache 2 license, some of
! 281: your rights will terminate if you claim in court that the code
! 282: violates a patent.
! 283: <p>
! 284:
! 285: A license can only be considered fully permissive if it allows use
! 286: by anyone for all the future without giving up any of their rights.
! 287: If there are conditions that might terminate any rights in the
! 288: future, or if you have to give up a right that you would otherwise
! 289: have, even if exercising that right could reasonably be regarded
! 290: as morally objectionable, the code is not free.
! 291: <p>
! 292:
! 293: In addition, the clause about the patent license is problematic because
! 294: a patent license cannot be granted under Copyright law, but only under
! 295: contract law, which drags the whole license into the domain of contract
! 296: law. But while Copyright law is somewhat standardized by international
! 297: agreements, contract law differs wildly among jurisdictions. So what
! 298: the license means in different jurisdictions may vary and is hard to
! 299: predict.
1.12 deraadt 300: <p>
301:
1.19 millert 302: <dt>ISC<dd><p>
303: The ISC copyright is functionally equivalent to a two-term BSD
304: copyright with language removed that is made unnecessary by the
305: Berne convention. This is the preferred license for new code
1.30 schwarze 306: incorporated into OpenBSD. A sample license is available in the file
1.40 tb 307: <a href="https://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/share/misc/license.template?rev=HEAD">/usr/share/misc/license.template</a>.
1.19 millert 308: <p>
309:
1.3 grr 310: <dt>GNU General Public License, GPL, LGPL, copyleft, etc.<dd><p>
1.1 grr 311: The GNU Public License and licenses modeled on it impose the restriction
312: that source code must be distributed or made available for all works that
1.3 grr 313: are derivatives of the GNU copyrighted code.
1.28 schwarze 314:
1.3 grr 315: <p>
1.28 schwarze 316: While this may superficially look like a noble strategy, it is a
317: condition that is typically unacceptable for commercial use of software.
318: So in practice, it usually ends up hindering free sharing and reuse
319: of code and ideas rather than encouraging it.
320: As a consequence, no additional software bound by the GPL terms
321: will be considered for inclusion into the OpenBSD base system.
1.12 deraadt 322:
1.3 grr 323: <p>
1.28 schwarze 324: For historical reasons, the OpenBSD base system still includes the
325: following GPL-licensed components: the GNU compiler collection (GCC)
1.33 nick 326: with supporting binutils and libraries, GNU CVS, GNU texinfo,
327: the mkhybrid file system creation tool, and the
1.28 schwarze 328: readline library. Replacement by equivalent, more freely licensed
329: tools is a long-term desideratum.
1.3 grr 330: <p>
1.12 deraadt 331:
1.1 grr 332: <dt>NetBSD<dd><p>
1.5 todd 333: Much of OpenBSD is originally based on and evolved from NetBSD, since some
1.3 grr 334: of the OpenBSD developers were involved in the NetBSD project. The general
335: NetBSD license terms are compatible with the Berkeley license and permit
336: such use. Material subject <strong>only</strong> to the general NetBSD
337: license can generally be included in OpenBSD.
338: <p>
1.12 deraadt 339:
1.11 millert 340: In the past, NetBSD has included material copyrighted by individuals
341: who have imposed license conditions beyond that of the general
342: NetBSD license, but granted the NetBSD Foundation license to
343: distribute the material. Such material can not be included in
344: OpenBSD as long as the conditions imposed are at odds with the
345: OpenBSD license terms or releases from those terms are offered on
346: a discriminatory basis.
1.12 deraadt 347: <p>
348:
1.1 grr 349: <dt>FreeBSD<dd><p>
1.3 grr 350: Most of FreeBSD is also based on Berkeley licensed material or includes
1.2 grr 351: copyright notices based on the Berkeley model. Such material can be
1.3 grr 352: included in OpenBSD, while those parts that are subject to GPL or
353: various individual copyright terms that are at odds with the OpenBSD license
354: can not be included in OpenBSD.
1.12 deraadt 355: <p>
356:
1.1 grr 357: <dt>Linux<dd><p>
358: Most of Linux is subject to GPL style licensing terms and therefore
1.2 grr 359: can not be included in OpenBSD. Individual components may be eligible,
1.1 grr 360: subject to the terms of the originator's copyright notices. Note that
1.8 d 361: Linux "distributions" may also be subject to additional copyright claims
1.1 grr 362: of the distributing organization, either as a compilation or on material
1.3 grr 363: included that is not part of the Linux core.
1.12 deraadt 364: <p>
365:
1.28 schwarze 366: <dt>X.Org<dd><p>
367: The X.Org Foundation maintains and distributes the X Window System
368: under a modified MIT license, which is quite similar to the BSD
369: license and additionally allows sublicensing. Under the name of
370: Xenocara, the OpenBSD base system includes an improved and actively
371: maintained version of the X.Org code.
1.12 deraadt 372: <p>
373:
1.1 grr 374: <dt>Shareware, Charityware, Freeware, etc.<dd><p>
375: Most "shareware" copyright notices impose conditions for redistribution,
376: use or visibility that are at conflict with the OpenBSD project goals.
377: Review on a case-by-case basis is required as to whether the wording
1.2 grr 378: of the conditions is acceptable in terms of conditions being requested vs.
1.1 grr 379: demanded and whether the spirit of the conditions is compatible with
1.2 grr 380: goals of the OpenBSD project.
1.12 deraadt 381: <p>
382:
1.1 grr 383: <dt>Public Domain<dd><p>
1.31 naddy 384: While material that is truly entered into the "public domain" can be
1.1 grr 385: included in OpenBSD, review is required on a case by case basis.
1.3 grr 386: Frequently the "public domain" assertion is made by someone who does
1.31 naddy 387: not really hold all rights under copyright law to grant that status or
1.1 grr 388: there are a variety of conditions imposed on use. For a work to be
1.31 naddy 389: truly in the "public domain" all rights are abandoned and the material
1.3 grr 390: is offered without restrictions.
1.12 deraadt 391: <p>
1.28 schwarze 392:
393: In some jurisdictions, it is doubtful whether voluntarily placing
394: one's own work into the public domain is legally possible.
395: For that reason, to make any substantial body of code free,
396: it is preferable to state the copyright and put it under an ISC
397: or BSD license instead of attempting to release it into the public
398: domain.
1.12 deraadt 399:
400: </dl>
1.1 grr 401:
402: </body>
403: </html>
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