New Version of Artistic License

Mon Nov 5 21:43:33 UTC 2001

I'm starting a new project and looked through the licenses on OpenSource.org
site to find a license that fit my needs. I really liked the Artistic
License but my project is in ObjC and the Artistic License seemed like it
was addressed to the C and Perl communities. It also seemed a little vague
but maybe that's just because I don't understand the practice in the Perl
community.

For those of you who aren't ObjC hackers, should there be any such, they way
you modify a program about 80% of the time is to declare and implement a new
category on some existing class. In most of the remaining cases, you just
derive a new class from an existing class. It's very rare to modify the
actual implementation of a class. The ability to do that is typically
limited to those with committer status on a project.

Anyway, I edited the Artistic License and developed something I'm calling
the Objective-C Artistic License. Mostly I changed "Package" to "Framework"
to fit ObjC usage but I also changed to wording a little to fit the practice
in the ObjC community. I also copied the last clause from one of the newer
licenses under the assumption that the lawyers have learned something.

I suspect that the last thing the world needs is yet another software
license and I'm not trying to create one. I'm trying to derive a subclass of
the Artistic License that is a sibling of the Perl Artistic License. Please
let me know if I have succeeded.

Here it is:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Objective C Artistic License

Preamble

The intent of this document is to state the conditions under which a
Framework may be copied, such that the Copyright Holder maintains some
semblance of artistic control over the development of the Framework, while
giving the users of the Framework the right to use and distribute the
Framework in a more-or-less customary fashion, plus the right to make
reasonable modifications.

Definitions:

"Framework" refers to the collection of files distributed by the Copyright
Holder, and derivatives of that collection of files created through textual
modification.

"Standard Version" refers to such a Framework if it has not been modified,
or has been modified in accordance with the wishes of the Copyright Holder.

"Copyright Holder" is whoever is named in the copyright or copyrights for
the framework or any part thereof.

"You" is you, if you're thinking about copying or distributing this Package.

"Reasonable copying fee" is whatever you can justify on the basis of media
cost, duplication charges, time of people involved, and so on. (You will not
be required to justify it to the Copyright Holder, but only to the computing
community at large as a market that must bear the fee.)

"Freely Available" means that no fee is charged for the item itself, though
there may be fees involved in handling the item. It also means that
recipients of the item may redistribute it under the same conditions they
received it.

1. You may make and give away verbatim copies of the source form of the
Standard Version of this Framework without restriction, provided that you
duplicate all of the original copyright notices and associated disclaimers.

2. You may modify the operation of the Framework by applying new categories
to any class in the Standard Version, adding new classes, deriving new
classes from any existing class, delegation, or forwarding. You may use and
distribute "patches." In short, you may modify the framework in any that
does not change the text of the @implementation portion of any Standard
Version class or category or hide any method of a Standard Version class or
category. You may also make any changes necessary to port the Framework to
any operating system or any version of Objective-c.

3. You may otherwise modify your copy of this Framework in any way, provided
that you insert a prominent notice in each changed file stating how and when
you changed that file, and provided that you do at least ONE of the
following:

a) offer your modifications for inclusion in the Standard Version under the
terms of this license.

b) place your modifications in the Public Domain or otherwise make them
Freely Available, such as by posting said modifications on the Internet and
posting an announcement of where to find your modifications to cocoa-dev,
macosx-dev and/or comp.lang.objective-c.

c) use the modified Package only for personal use or research purposes.

d) make other distribution arrangements with the Copyright Holder.

4. You may distribute the programs of this Framework in object code or
executable form, provided that you do at least ONE of the following:

a) distribute a Standard Version of the executables and library files,
together with instructions (in the manual page or equivalent) on where to
get the Standard Version.

b) accompany the distribution with the machine-readable source of the
Frameworks with your modifications.

c) accompany any non-standard executables with their corresponding Standard
Version executables, giving the non-standard executables non-standard names,
and clearly documenting the differences in manual pages (or equivalent),
together with instructions on where to get the Standard Version.

d) make other distribution arrangements with the Copyright Holder.

5. You may charge a reasonable copying fee for any distribution of this
Package. You may charge any fee you choose for support of this Package. You
may not charge a fee for this Framework itself. However, you may distribute
this Framework in aggregate with other (possibly commercial) programs as
part of a larger (possibly commercial) software distribution provided that
you do not advertise this Framework as a product of your own.

6. The scripts and library files supplied as input to or produced as output
from the programs of this Package do not automatically fall under the
copyright of this Package, but belong to whomever generated them, and may be
sold commercially, and may be aggregated with this Package.

7. Any classes supplied by you and linked into this Framework shall not be
considered part of this Framework.

8. The name of the Copyright Holder may not be used to endorse or promote
products derived from this software without specific prior written
permission.

9. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES
SHALL ANY CONTRIBUTER TO THIS FRAMEWORK BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON
FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND
RELATED TO OR ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OF THE SOFTWARE, EVEN IF THEY HAVE
BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

-- 
When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I'm
beginning to believe it. -Clarence Darrow, lawyer and author (1857-1938)

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