Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer
Encyclopedia
The Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer is an open source license, approved by the Open Source Initiative
(OSI). It is unique among the OSI's licenses because of the choices it allows in its construction; it lets the licensor pick anywhere from 0-2 warranty disclaimers, whether they want to prohibit your publicity of the software derivatives (like in the BSD License), and other spelling and grammar options. Besides this, the license can be almost functionally identical to the new 3-clause BSD License (if the option for the no-promotion clause is exercised), or the MIT License
(if the option for the no-promotion clause is not exercised).
Variants of this license are in use primarily in older software, including the original BSD kernel, developed by IBM
, Intel and others. Today, it is most popular to choose either the new 3-clause BSD License or the MIT License to meet the licensing needs of the developer.
This is the only OSI-certified license (excluding the public domain
) that can lack a disclaimer of warranty. The Free Software Foundation
has not yet recognized this license as a free software license in the general case, but has done so for certain variations, such as that used for versions of Python
before 1.6b.
Open Source Initiative
The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software.The organization was founded in February 1998, by Bruce Perens and Eric S. Raymond, prompted by Netscape Communications Corporation publishing the source code for its flagship Netscape Communicator product...
(OSI). It is unique among the OSI's licenses because of the choices it allows in its construction; it lets the licensor pick anywhere from 0-2 warranty disclaimers, whether they want to prohibit your publicity of the software derivatives (like in the BSD License), and other spelling and grammar options. Besides this, the license can be almost functionally identical to the new 3-clause BSD License (if the option for the no-promotion clause is exercised), or the MIT License
MIT License
The MIT License is a free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . It is a permissive license, meaning that it permits reuse within proprietary software provided all copies of the licensed software include a copy of the MIT License terms...
(if the option for the no-promotion clause is not exercised).
Variants of this license are in use primarily in older software, including the original BSD kernel, developed by IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, Intel and others. Today, it is most popular to choose either the new 3-clause BSD License or the MIT License to meet the licensing needs of the developer.
This is the only OSI-certified license (excluding the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
) that can lack a disclaimer of warranty. The Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
has not yet recognized this license as a free software license in the general case, but has done so for certain variations, such as that used for versions of Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
before 1.6b.