path: root/COPYING-PLAIN

Plain English Copyright Notice

This file is not intended to be the actual License. The reason this file
exists is that we here are programmers and engineers. We aren't lawyers. We
provide licenses that we THINK say the right things, but we have our own
intentions at heart. This is a plain-english explanation of what those
intentions are, and if you follow them you will be within the "spirit" of
the license.

The intent is for us to enjoy writing software that is useful to us (the
AUTHORS) and allow others to use it freely and also benefit from the work we
put into making it. We don't want to restrict others using it. They should
not *HAVE* to make the source code of the applications they write that
simply link to these libraries (be that statically or dynamically), or for
them to be limited as to what license they choose to use (be it open, closed
or anything else). But we would like to know you are using these libraries.
We simply would like to know that it has been useful to someone. This is why
we ask for acknowledgement of some sort.

You can do what you want with the source of this software - it doesn't
matter. We still have it here for ourselves and it is open and free to use
and download and play with. It can't be taken away. We don't really mind what
you do with the source to your software. We would simply like to know that
you are using it - especially if it makes it to a commerical product. If you
simply e-mail all the AUTHORS (see COPYING and AUTHORS files) telling us, and
then make sure you include a paragraph or page in the manual for the product
with the copyright notice and state that you used this software, we will be
very happy. If you want to contribute back modifications and fixes you may have
made we will welcome those too with open arms (generally). If you want help
with changes needed, ports needed or features to be added, arrangements can
be easily made with some dialogue.

Carsten Haitzler <raster@rasterman.com>