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NetBSD Licensing and RedistributionSkip to main content.» The Guide | Manual pages | Mailing lists and Archives | CVS repository | Report or query a bug | Software Packages ![[NetBSD Logo]](http://www.netbsd.org/about/redistribution.html/../images/NetBSD-headerlogo.png) Navigation: Home | About | Download | Documentation | Support | Community | PortsNetBSD Licensing and RedistributionThis page exists to give you a bit ofbackground information about copyright,to explain the licensing terms that most ofthe NetBSD operating system is distributed under, and toexplain why we chose those licensing terms.NetBSD's copyright and licensing termsThe traditional Berkeley licenseDefault license for all code assigned to The NetBSD FoundationNetBSD's choice of licenseWhy the NetBSD Project uses a Berkeley-style licenseWhy NetBSD switched from using a 4-clause to a 2-clause licenseCopyright informationWhat is copyright, anyway?NetBSD's copyright and licensing termsThe traditional Berkeley license (top) For the most part, the software constituting the NetBSD operatingsystem is not in the public domain; its authors retain their copyright.However, because the people working on the NetBSD Projectare committed to providing afree operating system, the license terms that cover most of theProject's source codeare relatively lenient. In general, developers pattern their licenseterms after what's known as the “Berkeley license”. This licensewas used in the University of California, Berkeley's second BerkeleyNetworking Release and the 4.4BSD Lite software release, and looks likethis:Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or withoutmodification, are permitted provided that the following conditionsare met: 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.The license is preceded by the copyright statement itself, andis followed by some disclaimer information, so thatif someone has problems with the software the authors can't beheld liable.The Berkeley license is a rather liberal license. All it requiresis that the author of the work be given due credit for their creation,and that their name not be used to promote products based on theirwork. It allows free distribution, as long as the terms are followed,and also allows people to modify the work and not distribute it, if they so choose. Some contributors also omit the third clause.Though the Berkeley license is generally used as the template forthe licenseterms of works that are part of the NetBSD source tree, it does notapply to all works in the source tree, and you should check theindividual source files to see what license applies to them. Inparticular, certain parts of the source tree are covered by theGNU General Public License(also known as the GPL),which is very different from the Berkeley license. Thoughwe would like all of the software that we distributeto be covered by a Berkeley-style license,we can't make other people change their license terms, and we don'thave an infinite amount of time to rewrite all of the software thatwe need.Default license for all code assigned to The NetBSD Foundation (top) The NetBSD Foundation's (TNF) license is a “2 clause” Berkeley-style license, which is used for all codecontributed to TNF. If you write code and assign the copyright to TNF, thisis the license that will be used:/*- * Copyright (c) 2008 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc. * All rights reserved. * * This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation * by * * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions * are met: * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the * documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. * * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE NETBSD FOUNDATION, INC. AND CONTRIBUTORS * ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED * TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR * PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE FOUNDATION OR CONTRIBUTORS * BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR * CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF * SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS * INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN * CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) * ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE * POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. */NetBSD's choice of licenseWhy the NetBSD Project uses a Berkeley-style license (top) The people working on the NetBSD Project want to provide ahigh-quality system that anyone can use for whatever they want.We are not in it for the money (we are volunteers!), so we have nodesire to keep people from distributing our work. However, neither dowe want to place our work into the public domain, and thereby giveup our claim to even having our names on the software we wrote!One thing that some people don't realize about Berkeley-stylelicenses is that they allow licensees (the users of the licensed work)to sell the code, in any form, with or without modification, and thatthey make no requirement that licensees give away the source code,even if they're selling binaries.This provides a striking contrast to the licenseterms granted by the GNU General Public License, because the GPL requiresthat, if you're distributing binaries, you must be willingto give away the sources to build those binaries.Those of us working on the NetBSD Project are aware of thisdistinction, and some even value it. As stated above, we wantanyone to be able to use the NetBSD operating system forwhatever they want, just as long as they follow the fewrestrictions made by our license terms. Additionally, we don'tthink it's right to require people who add to our work and want todistribute the results (for profit or otherwise) to giveaway the source to their additions; they made the additions, and theyshould be free to do with them as they wish.In summary, the people involved in the NetBSD Project use a Berkeley-stylelicense where possible because it closely matches our goal of allowingusers to do whatever they'd like with our software, while still retainingthe copyright and getting credit for the work we have done. We arepragmatic, however, and will include software with different license termsin the NetBSD operating system if it significantly improves the quality ofthe system.Why NetBSD switched from using a 4-clause to a 2-clause license (top) In 2008, following on from a vote amongst the membership of the NetBSDFoundation, and in recognition of the changing face of softwarelicensing, the Foundation has changed its recommended license to be a2 clause BSD license. This recommended license is theone that the Foundation strongly encourages its contributors to usewhen assigning copyright to the Foundation.At the same time, all the code which was contributed to the NetBSDFoundation has been modified to use the new 2-clause NetBSD license.The change in license has come about because of a number of factors: We have seen organisations and people concerned about the old clause 3 (the advertising clause) in the license, to the extent where NetBSD code could not be used in commercial products; the new license means that these concerns are no longer valid. UCB moved some time ago to remove clause 3 from the code contributed to UCB; this change mirrors that one. Some of our developers work for companies in Open Source or research departments where they are allowed to contribute back daytime work to the open source project, but only if the project's license is acceptable to their legal department, and the 4 clause BSD license has been rejected in some cases. The members of the NetBSD Foundation (i.e. its developers) no longer considered clause 4 (the "endorsement" clause) to be useful in today's software world. Copyright informationWhat is copyright, anyway? (top) This information is for educational purposes only and we do not claim to provide legal advice. If you need legal advice, you should talk to a lawyer licensed to practice in your area. Ifyou would like more information about copyright than we providehere, you may want to look at theCopyright FAQ,but you should note that it doesn't provide legal advice, either.Copyright is the mechanism that allows creators to obtain certainexclusive rights to their creations. For instance, it allows a poem'sauthor the right of exclusive reproduction of his or her poem; only thecreator of a work, or those given permission by the creator, mayreproduce that work.Copyright protects original expression. It does not protect the ideas or facts that underlie a work, nor does it protectany pre-existing work that the creator of a work has incorporated intotheir work.In the United States and in other countries that aresignatories to the Berne Convention, a work's creator does not need to mark the work in any way to retain copyright.The various protected rights to a work can be granted by means of alicense, a set of terms and conditions that define the situationsin which a third party may reproduce a creator's work. The termsof a license can vary greatly: some licenses demand a fee, whileothers make no such requirement; some licenses restrict furtherredistribution of a work, while others may require it incertain conditions.There are many ways that the terms of a licensecan come into effect. For instance, a license agreement may be signedbefore access to a work is given, or a prominent statement of the licenseterms may be made along with a statement that use of the work impliesacceptance of the license terms (known as a shrink-wrap agreement).Note that there is a significant difference between works forwhich a creator retains copyright and works that are placed into thepublic domain by their creator. When a creator places a work into thepublic domain, he or she gives up all rights to the work in question. An author of a piece of software cannot say something suchas, "This work is inthe public domain. You may redistribute it freely as long as you donot charge for it." This is self-contradictory, because by placingthe work in the public domain, they gave up their right to controlits reproduction. Contact | Disclaimer | Copyright © 1994-2008 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.NetBSD® is a registered trademark of The NetBSD Foundation, Inc. |
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