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www/licenses gpl-howto.html
|
From: |
Richard M. Stallman |
|
Subject: |
www/licenses gpl-howto.html |
|
Date: |
Thu, 17 Aug 2017 13:58:51 -0400 (EDT) |
CVSROOT: /web/www
Module name: www
Changes by: Richard M. Stallman <rms> 17/08/17 13:58:51
Modified files:
licenses : gpl-howto.html
Log message:
Major rewrite (though substance is not really changed, just clarified).
Add sections, The Copyright Disclaimer and Why License Notices.
Add an itemized list of steps to follow.
Rewrites throughout.
CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/licenses/gpl-howto.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.46&r2=1.47
Patches:
Index: gpl-howto.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/licenses/gpl-howto.html,v
retrieving revision 1.46
retrieving revision 1.47
diff -u -b -r1.46 -r1.47
--- gpl-howto.html 12 Apr 2014 12:39:51 -0000 1.46
+++ gpl-howto.html 17 Aug 2017 17:58:50 -0000 1.47
@@ -8,14 +8,14 @@
<p>This is a brief explanation of how to place a program under the <a
href="/licenses/gpl.html">GNU General Public License</a>, <a
-href="/licenses/lgpl.html">Lesser General Public License</a>, or <a
-href="/licenses/agpl.html">Affero General Public License</a>. For the
+href="/licenses/lgpl.html">GNU Lesser General Public License</a>, or <a
+href="/licenses/agpl.html">GNU Affero General Public License</a>. For the
<a href="/licenses/fdl.html">GNU Free Documentation License</a>, we have
a <a href="/licenses/fdl-howto.html">separate page</a>.</p>
-<p>If you are looking for more detailed information, consider perusing
-our list of <a href="/licenses/gpl-faq.html">frequently asked questions
-about our licenses</a>.</p>
+<p>For further information, see our list
+of <a href="/licenses/gpl-faq.html">frequently asked questions about
+our licenses</a>.</p>
<p>If you are considering using the GNU Lesser General Public License,
please read the article “<a href="/licenses/why-not-lgpl.html">Why
@@ -23,18 +23,63 @@
article explains why it may be better to use the ordinary GPL instead,
and how we would make the decision.</p>
-<p>Whichever license you plan to use, the process involves adding two
-elements to each source file of your program: a copyright notice (such
-as “Copyright 1999 Terry Jones”), and a statement of copying
-permission, saying that the program is distributed under the terms of
-the GNU General Public License (or the Lesser GPL).</p>
+Here's a brief summary of what you need to do to release a program
+under one of our licenses:
+
+<ul>
+<li>Get a copyright disclaimer from your employer or school.
+<li>Give each file the proper copyright notices(s).
+<li>Add a COPYING file with a copy of the GNU GPL or GNU AGPL.
+<li>Also add a COPYING.LESSER file with a copy of the GNU LGPL, if you
+use that.
+<li>Put a license notice in each file.
+<li>(Optionally) make the program display a startup notice.
+<li>(If using the AGPL) make the program offer copies of its source code.
+</ul>
+
+<p>This involves adding two elements to each source file of your
+program: a copyright notice (such as “Copyright 1999 Terry
+Jones”), and a statement of copying permission, saying that the
+program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public
+License (or the Lesser GPL, or the Affero GPL).</p>
+
+<h3>The copyright disclaimer</h3>
+
+<p>To avoid possible legal complications later, it's wise to ask your
+employer or school, if any, to sign a copyright disclaimer for your
+program, so it cannot latter claim that the copyright belongs to it
+and that you had no right to release the program at all. This really
+has nothing to do with the GNU GPL—it applies no matter which
+free software license you use to release the program.</p>
+
+<p>Here is a sample copyright disclaimer; just alter the names, title,
+and program description as appropriate:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest
+in the program “Woodpecker” (which deconstructs trees)
+written by James Hacker.</p>
+
+<p><em>signature of Moe Ghoul</em> 1 April 1989<br />
+ Moe Ghoul, President of Vice</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>If you are a university student, we recommend you request the
+disclaimer <a href="/philosophy/university.html"> at an early stage in
+writing the program</a> to reduce resistance.</p>
+
+<p>If you work, the best time to negotiate permission to release free
+software is <em>when negotiating your employment agreement.</em></p>
+
+<h3>The copyright notice</h3>
<p>The copyright notice should include the year in which you finished
-preparing the release (so if you finished it in 1998 but didn't post it
-until 1999, use 1998). You should add the proper year for each release;
-for example, “Copyright 1998, 1999 Terry Jones” if some
-versions were finished in 1998 and some were finished in 1999. If
-several people helped write the code, use all their names.</p>
+preparing the release (so if you finished it in 1998 but didn't post
+it until 1999, use 1998). You should add the proper year for each
+past release; for example, “Copyright 1998, 1999 Terry
+Jones” if some releases were finished in 1998 and some were
+finished in 1999. If several people helped write the code, use all
+their names.</p>
<p>For software with several releases over multiple years, it's okay
to use a range (“2008-2010”) instead of listing individual
@@ -48,36 +93,36 @@
languages. The copyright symbol “©” can be included if
you wish (and your character set supports it), but it's not necessary.
There is no legal significance to using the three-character sequence
-“(C)”, although it does no harm.</p>
+“(C)”, but it does no harm.</p>
+
+<p>If you have copied code from other programs covered by the same
+license, copy their copyright notices too. Put all the copyright
+notices for a file together, right near the top of the file.</p>
+
+<h3>The license file(s)</h3>
<p>You should also include a copy of the license itself somewhere in the
distribution of your program. All programs, whether they are released
under the GPL or LGPL, should include <a href="/licenses/gpl.txt">the
-text version of the GPL</a>. In GNU programs the license is usually in
-a file called COPYING.</p>
+text version of the GPL</a>. In GNU programs we conventionally put the
+license in a file called COPYING.</p>
-<p>If you are releasing your program under the LGPL, you should also
+<p>If you are releasing your program under the GNU AGPL,
+use <a href="/licenses/agpl.txt">the text version of the GNU AGPL</a>
+instead of the GNU GPL.</p>
+
+<p>If you are releasing your program under the Lesser GPL, you should also
include <a href="/licenses/lgpl.txt">the text version of the LGPL</a>,
usually in a file called COPYING.LESSER. Please note that, since the
-LGPL is a set of additional permissions on top of the GPL, it's important
+LGPL is a set of additional permissions on top of the GPL, it's crucial
to include both licenses so users have all the materials they need to
understand their rights.</p>
-<p>If you are releasing your program under the GNU AGPL, you only need to
-include <a href="/licenses/agpl.txt">the text version of the GNU
-AGPL</a>.</p>
+<h3>The license notices</h3>
-<p>If you have copied code from other programs covered by the same
-license, copy their copyright notices too. Put all the copyright
-notices together, right near the top of each file.</p>
-
-<p>It is very important for practical reasons to include contact
-information for how to reach you, perhaps in the README file, but this
-has nothing to do with the legal issues of applying the license.</p>
-
-<p>The copying permission statement should come right after the
-copyright notices. For a one-file program, the statement (for the GPL)
-should look like this:</p>
+<p>Each file's copying permission statement (also called the license notice)
+should come right after its copyright notices. For a one-file
+program, the statement (for the GPL) should look like this:</p>
<pre>
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
@@ -123,11 +168,35 @@
word “Affero” before “General” in <em>all
three</em> places.</p>
+<h3>Why license notices?</h3>
+
+<p>The purpose of a free software license is to give certain rights to
+all users of a program. If it is not clear what rights you have given
+them, that defeats the purpose. Our practices are designed to
+avoid any uncertainty.</p>
+
+<p>If a program has a copy of a license FOO alongside the source files,
+but doesn't have an explicit statement that “This program is
+released under license FOO,” that leaves room for uncertainty
+about whether the license FOO applies to the code of that program.</p>
+
+<p>If a release has one statement that “This program is released
+under license FOO,” in a central place such as the README file,
+that makes the situation clear <em>for that release</em>. However,
+programmers often copy source files from one free program into
+another. If a source file contains no statement about what its
+license is, then moving it into another context eliminates all trace
+of that point. This invites confusion and error.</p>
+
+<h3>The startup notice</h3>
+
<p>For interactive programs, it is usually a good idea to make the
-program print out a brief notice about copyright and copying permission
+program display a brief notice about copyright and copying permission
when it starts up. See <a href="/licenses/gpl-3.0.html#howto">the end
of the GNU GPL</a> for more information about this.</p>
+<h3>The Affero notice</h3>
+
<p>If you are releasing your program under the GNU AGPL, and it can
interact with users over a network, the program should offer its source to
those users in some way. For example, if your program is a web
@@ -136,38 +205,34 @@
that you can choose a method that's suitable for your specific
program—see section 13 for details.</p>
+<h3>Miscellaneous</h3>
+
+<p>It is very important for practical reasons to include contact
+information for how to reach you, perhaps in the README file, but this
+has nothing to do with the legal issues of applying the license.</p>
+
<p>There is no legal requirement to register your copyright with anyone;
-simply distributing the program makes it copyrighted. However, it is a
-very good idea to register the copyright with the US Registry of
+simply writing the program makes it copyrighted. However, for the US,
+it is a good idea to register the copyright with the US Registry of
Copyrights, because that puts you in a stronger position against anyone
who violates the license in the US. Most other countries have no system
of copyright registration.</p>
-<p>It's wise to ask your employer or school, if any, to sign a
-copyright disclaimer for the work, so they cannot claim to hold it
-later. Below is a sample copyright disclaimer; just alter the names
-and program description as appropriate:</p>
-
-<blockquote><p>Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest
-in the program “Gnomovision” (which makes passes at
-compilers) written by James Hacker.</p>
-
-<p><signature of Moe Ghoul>, 1 April 1989<br />
- Moe Ghoul, President of Vice</p></blockquote>
-
-<p>We would like to list all free software programs in the Free Software
-Directory, including all programs licensed under the GPL (any version).
-Please see the <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/";>Directory web page</a>
-for information and an online submission form.</p>
+<p>We would like to list all free software programs in the Free
+Software Directory, including all programs licensed under the GPL (any
+version). So please submit an entry for your program, when it has
+reached the point of being useful. Please see
+the <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/";>Directory web page</a> for
+information and an online submission form.</p>
<p>It is also possible to make your program a GNU package, a part of the
-GNU Project. (That's if we like the program—we have to look at it
-first, and decide.) If you might be interested in joining up with the
+GNU Project. If you might be interested in joining up with the
GNU Project in this way, please see our <a
href="/help/evaluation.html">GNU software evaluation page</a> for more
-information and a short questionnaire.</p>
+information and a short questionnaire. We will respond and discuss the
+matter with you.</p>
-<p>But you are welcome to use any of our licenses even if your program
+<p>You are welcome to use any of our licenses even if your program
is not a GNU package; indeed, we hope you will. They're available to
everyone. If you'd like to advertise your use of a particular license,
feel free to use <a href="/graphics/license-logos.html"
@@ -231,7 +296,7 @@
<p class="unprintable">Updated:
<!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2014/04/12 12:39:51 $
+$Date: 2017/08/17 17:58:50 $
<!-- timestamp end -->
</p>
</div>
- www/licenses gpl-howto.html,
Richard M. Stallman <=