ISC license

ISC license
Author Internet Software Consortium
DFSG compatible Yes
FSF approved Yes
OSI approved Yes
GPL compatible Yes
Copyleft No
Linking from code with a different license Yes

The ISC license is a permissive free software license written by the Internet Software Consortium (ISC). It is functionally equivalent to the simplified BSD and MIT/Expat licenses, with language that was deemed unnecessary by the Berne convention removed.[1] Initially used for ISC's own software releases, it has since become the preferred license of OpenBSD (starting June 2003[2]), among other projects.[3]

History

Before accepting the license as a free software license, the Free Software Foundation asked for clarification of the text. In July 2007, as a result, "and distribute" was changed to "and/or distribute".[4] The Free Software Foundation eventually approved the ISC license as a lax, permissive free software license, compatible with the GNU GPL.[5] As of March 2015, The OpenBSD template still uses the original "and distribute" phrasing.[3]

Text

A template of this license is:

Copyright (c) Year(s), Company or Person's Name <E-mail address>

Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "OpenBSD license policy". The ISC copyright is functionally equivalent to a two-term BSD copyright with language removed that is made unnecessary by the Berne convention.
  2. ↑ "CVS log for src/share/misc/license.template". Tue Jun 3 17:45:38 2003 UTC by millert: "Add a license template; deraadt@ OK"
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "OpenBSD license template".
  4. ↑ Paul Vixie (2007-07-20). "BIND covered under which license and does it contain any cryptographic content ?". Newsgroup: comp.protocols.dns.bind. Usenet: f7pemd$1557$1@sf1.isc.org. Retrieved 2007-09-25.
  5. ↑ "Various Licenses and Comments about Them - ISC License". Free Software Foundation, Inc. Retrieved 1 October 2014.

External links