ShagWare Licenses
ShagWare Licenses
Last Update: July 18, 1999.
There are basically three different sets of terms under which the
software on this website is released to the public. The purpose of
this page is to present the licenses and to try to clarify the
intent of the licenses. All material is copyrighted by the
author unless stated otherwise, and most files have headers
at the top that clearly state which licensing terms apply.
The full legal terms of all the licenses are available
here.
ShagWare General Public License
SOLO, DECO, CParse and SHACC are currently being released to
the public under the terms of the ShagWare General
Public License (SGPL). This license
allows anyone to freely make use of the code for any purpose,
commercial or otherwise, as long as its terms are followed.
Source code and binary-only redistributions are allowed.
The SGPL also contains a provision which allows a user of the code
to convert the code over to the GNU Public License (GPL)
if necessary.
The licensing terms allow the source code to be mixed with
other source code without conflicting with other licensing
agreements, and without releasing proprietary source code.
Users of the code simply must make it obvious that this code
was incorporated, and make the original source code accessible.
(which can be as easy as adding a notice and
a URL to an accompanying document).
Read the complete terms of the license for more details.
ShagWare Non-profit Public License
ShagOS is currently being released under the terms of the
ShagWare Non-profit Public License (SNPL). This license is
more restrictive that the SGPL, since it does not allow
commercial redistributions (source or binary)
of the software. Non-profit redistributions are allowed,
however, provided that all of its terms are followed.
It should be noted that fees _can_ be charged for redistributions
of code protected by the SNPL, provided that these fees are
limited to the nominal cost of shipping and handling.
Read the complete terms of the license for more details.
Public Domain
Currently, no software package is being released entirely in the public
domain, but some individual files are being released in this manner.
Such files clearly say they were released into the public domain.
Most (but not all) header files (.h files) are being released into
the public domain, since they act as interfaces and need to be
freely available to prevent arbitrary incompatibilities.
Many of the header files do not clearly state that they are
being given to the public domain, but if the file is a header (.h) file
and contains no message to the contrary, it may be safely assumed
that the file is public domain.
Still Evolving
Every effort has been made to make this software as useful as possible,
while still protecting my rights to its ownership. Since every download
comes with a license agreement, you may, of course, always use the
software under the terms of that license. However, I'm still evolving
future forms of the licenses to be more useful. So, if you have
any problems with the terms, and wish to suggest a revision, or work
out an arrangement for an individual license, please
email me and describe
your situation, and we'll work something out.
Frank Barrus /
license_removethis@shaggy.cc
people have seen these terms since July 18, 1999.
back to my homepage (meet the author)