License

From CSDMS

Model Licensing information

Why should I license my source code?

The main goal of CSDMS is to offer a community-built and freely available suite of integrated, ever-improving software models and modules that predict the movement of fluids, and the flux (production, erosion, transport, and deposition) of sediment and solutes in landscapes and their sedimentary basins over a broad range of time and space scales.
Licensing software models and modules ensure you that once freely available made software models and modules are staying available for the community, even if others are 'upgrading' your code.

CSDMS Integration software is licensed under the BSD or MIT-X11 license. This implies that permission is granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of CSDMS software and associated documentation files, without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the software, and to permit persons to whom the software is furnished, subject to the following conditions:

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

However CSDMS recommends, to those developing component models, to use the GPL v3, which is widely used by free libre / open source software developers because the license:

  1. provides a better quid-pro-quo for developers
  2. establishes collaboration between people
  3. protects developers work
  4. encourages increasing the amount of free software.

Using the GNU GPL will require that all the released improved versions be free software. This means you can avoid the risk of having to compete with a proprietary modified version of your own work.
And even if you don't like the GPL license, potential co-developers do, so your project is more likely to be successful if you accommodate them.

CSDMS suggested licenses

CSDMS urges program developers to chose GPL v3 or at least GPL v3 compatible licenses to make it possible to couple models with other models such that other people can use them. Below we list approved licenses by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) which are GPL v3 compatible:

  • Artistic License 2.0
  • Berkeley Database License
  • modified BSD license
  • Boost Software License
  • Cryptix General License
  • Eiffel Forum License version2
  • GNU Lesser General Public License
  • Intel Open Source License
  • ISC license
  • MIT license
  • Python Software Foundation License 2.0.1, 2.1.1 and newer
  • W3C Software Notice and License
  • zlib/libpng license
  • Zope Public License version 2.0

For more information about licenses, see the external links below.

How to apply the GPL v3 license to your program

New programs

If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.

To do so, incorporate the following notices to the program. It is safest to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.

<one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
Copyright (C) <year> <name of author>
Developer can be contacted by <email> and <paper mail>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.

Interactive programs

If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this when it starts in an interactive mode:

Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author
Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.

The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.

Signatures

You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:

Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program 'Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
<signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
Ty Coon, President of Vice

External links:

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