Aladdin Free Public License
| Latest version | 9 |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Aladdin Enterprises |
| Published | September 18, 2000 |
| DFSG compatible | No |
| FSF approved | No[1] |
| OSI approved | No |
| GPL compatible | No |
The Aladdin Free Public License, abbreviated AFPL, is a license written by L. Peter Deutsch for his Ghostscript PostScript language interpreter.
History
The license was derived from the GNU General Public License, but differs on two key points:
- The source code must be included with any software distribution.
- The software may not be sold, including any fees involved with distribution.
Deutsch chose to include a commercial restriction in the AFPL based on his observation of people including Ghostscript in commercial products without full license compliance.[2] Recent versions of Ghostscript are not licensed under the AFPL.[3]
Despite the name, the Free Software Foundation does not consider the AFPL a free software license.[1] and it does not fall under the Copyfree Standard Definition.
See also
- Dual-licensing
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Licenses - Free Software Foundation". Archived from the original on January 13, 2009. Retrieved January 5, 2009.
- ↑ Stig Hackvän (October 1998). "L. Peter Deutsch in conversation with Stig Hackvän" (CD-ROM). Dr Dobb's Journal. CMP Media LLC. Retrieved July 21, 2007.
As you recall, I promised Stallman that I would continue to distribute Ghostscript with the GNU license. But I saw a number of companies bundling Ghostscript with commercial products while just barely complying with the letter of the GNU license, so I decided that I did not want to make Ghostscript as available for commercial distribution as it would be with the GNU license.
- ↑ "Ghostscript, Ghostview and GSview". Archived from the original on June 30, 2007. Retrieved July 21, 2007.
External links
- Aladdin Free Public License (Version 9, September 18, 2000; archived)