home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- NETHACK GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
- (Copyright 1989, M. Stephenson)
-
- (Based on the BISON general public license,
- copyright 1988 Richard M. Stallman)
-
- Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this
- license, but changing it is not allowed. You can also use this wording to
- make the terms for other programs.
-
- The license agreements of most software companies keep you at the mercy of
- those companies. By contrast, our general public license is intended to give
- everyone the right to share NetHack. To make sure that you get the rights we
- want you to have, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you
- these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. Hence this license
- agreement.
-
- Specifically, we want to make sure that you have the right to give away
- copies of NetHack, that you receive source code or else can get it if you
- want it, that you can change NetHack or use pieces of it in new free
- programs, and that you know you can do these things.
-
- To make sure that everyone has such rights, we have to forbid you to
- deprive anyone else of these rights. For example, if you distribute copies
- of NetHack, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You
- must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you
- must tell them their rights.
-
- Also, for our own protection, we must make certain that everyone finds out
- that there is no warranty for NetHack. If NetHack is modified by someone
- else and passed on, we want its recipients to know that what they have is
- not what we distributed.
-
- Therefore we (Mike Stephenson and other holders of NetHack copyrights) make
- the following terms which say what you must do to be allowed to distribute or
- change NetHack.
-
-
- COPYING POLICIES
-
- 1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of NetHack source code as
- you receive it, in any medium, provided that you keep intact the notices on
- all files that refer to copyrights, to this License Agreement, and to the
- absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the NetHack
- program a copy of this License Agreement along with the program.
-
- 2. You may modify your copy or copies of NetHack or any portion of it, and
- copy and distribute such modifications under the terms of Paragraph 1 above
- (including distributing this License Agreement), provided that you also do the
- following:
-
- a) cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you
- changed the files and the date of any change; and
-
- b) cause the whole of any work that you distribute or publish, that in
- whole or in part contains or is a derivative of NetHack or any part
- thereof, to be licensed at no charge to all third parties on terms
- identical to those contained in this License Agreement (except that you
- may choose to grant more extensive warranty protection to some or all
- third parties, at your option)
-
- c) You may charge a distribution fee for the physical act of
- transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection
- in exchange for a fee.
-
- 3. You may copy and distribute NetHack (or a portion or derivative of it,
- under Paragraph 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
- Paragraphs 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
-
- a) accompany it with the complete machine-readable source code, which
- must be distributed under the terms of Paragraphs 1 and 2 above; or,
-
- b) accompany it with full information as to how to obtain the complete
- machine-readable source code from an appropriate archive site. (This
- alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution.)
-
- For these purposes, complete source code means either the full source
- distribution as originally released over Usenet or updated copies of the
- files in this distribution used to create the object code or executable.
-
- 4. You may not copy, sublicense, distribute or transfer NetHack except as
- expressly provided under this License Agreement. Any attempt otherwise to
- copy, sublicense, distribute or transfer NetHack is void and your rights to
- use the program under this License agreement shall be automatically
- terminated. However, parties who have received computer software programs
- from you with this License Agreement will not have their licenses terminated
- so long as such parties remain in full compliance.
-
-
- Stated plainly: You are prohibited by the terms of this License Agreement from
- using NetHack for gainful purposes. You are permitted to modify NetHack, or
- otherwise use parts of NetHack, provided that you comply with the conditions
- specified above; in particular, your modified NetHack or program containing
- parts of NetHack must remain freely available as provided in this License
- Agreement. In other words, go ahead and share NetHack, but don't try to stop
- anyone else from sharing it farther.
-
-