Simplified non-definition of "License Steward".

[GPL.next.git] / GPL.next

                             GPL.NEXT 

  0. Definitions.

  "You" means a person exercising rights under this License.

  "The Program" means a particular copyrightable work licensed under
this License and received by You.

  To "modify" a work means to copy from or adapt all or part of the
work in a fashion requiring copyright permission, other than the
making of an exact copy.  The resulting work is called a "modified
version" of the earlier work or a work "based on" the earlier work.

  A "Covered Work" means either the Program or a work based on the
Program.

  For the avoidance of doubt, "distribution" of a work does not
include mere interaction with a user through a computer network, with
no transfer of a copy.

  An interactive user interface displays "Appropriate Legal Notices"
to the extent that it includes a convenient and prominently visible
feature that (1) displays an appropriate copyright notice, and (2)
tells the user that there is no warranty for the work (except to the
extent that warranties are provided), that licensees may distribute the
work under this License, and how to view a copy of this License.  If
the interface presents a list of user commands or options, such as a
menu, a prominent item in the list meets this criterion.

  "License Steward" is [to be defined]. 

  1. Source Code.

  The "source code" for a work means the preferred form of the work
for making modifications to it.  "Object code" means any non-source
form of a work.

  A "Standard Interface" means an interface that either is an official
standard defined by a recognized standards body, or, in the case of
interfaces specified for a particular programming language, one that
is widely used among developers working in that language.

  "System Libraries" of an executable work means any part of the work
that is normally distributed (in either source code or object code
form) with (i) the major components (kernel, window system, and so on)
of the operating system on which the executable runs or (ii) a
compiler used to produce the executable or (iii) an object code
interpreter used to run the executable.

  The "Corresponding Source" for a work in object code form means all
the source code needed to generate, install, and (for an executable
work) run the object code and to modify the work, including scripts to
control those activities.  However, it does not include the work's
System Libraries, or general-purpose tools or generally available free
programs which are used unmodified in performing those activities but
which are not part of the work.  For example, Corresponding Source
includes interface definition files associated with source files for
the work, and the source code for shared libraries and dynamically
linked subprograms that the work is specifically designed to require,
such as by intimate data communication or control flow between those
subprograms and other parts of the work.

  2. Basic Permissions.

  All rights granted under this License are granted for the term of
copyright on the Program, and are irrevocable provided the stated
conditions are met.  This License explicitly affirms Your unlimited
permission to run the Program.  The output from running a Covered Work
is covered by this License only if the output, given its content,
constitutes a Covered Work.  

  This License is not intended to limit any rights You have under
applicable copyright doctrines of fair use, fair dealing or other
equivalents.

  You may make, run and copy Covered Works that You do not distribute,
without conditions so long as Your license otherwise remains in force.
You may distribute Covered Works to others for the sole purpose of
having them make modifications exclusively for You, or provide You
with facilities for running those works, provided that You comply with
the terms of this License in distributing all material for which You
do not control copyright.  Those thus making or running the Covered
Works for You must do so exclusively on Your behalf, under Your
direction and control, on terms that prohibit them from making any
copies of Your copyrighted material outside their relationship with
You.

  Distributing under any other circumstances is permitted solely under
the conditions stated below.  Sublicensing is not allowed; section 9
makes it unnecessary.

  3. Anti-Circumvention Law.

  No Covered Work shall be deemed part of an effective technological
measure under any applicable law fulfilling obligations under article
11 of the WIPO copyright treaty adopted on 20 December 1996, or
similar laws prohibiting or restricting circumvention of such
measures.

  When You distribute a Covered Work, You waive any legal power to forbid
circumvention of technological measures to the extent such circumvention
is effected by exercising rights under this License with respect to
the Covered Work, and You disclaim any intention to limit operation or
modification of the work as a means of enforcing, against the work's
users, Your or third parties' legal rights to forbid circumvention of
technological measures.

  4. Distributing Verbatim Copies.

  You may distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as You
receive it, in any medium, provided that You conspicuously and
appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice;
keep intact all notices stating that this License and any
non-permissive terms added in accord with section 7 apply to the code;
keep intact all notices of the absence of any warranty; and give all
recipients a copy of this License along with the Program.

  You may charge any price or no price for each copy that You distribute,
and You may offer support or warranty protection for a fee.

  5. Distributing Modified Source Versions.

  You may distribute a work based on the Program in the form of source
code under the terms of section 4, provided that You also meet all of
these conditions:

    a) The work must carry prominent notices stating that You modified
    it, and giving a relevant date.

    b) The work must carry prominent notices stating that it is
    released under this License and any conditions added under section
    7.  This requirement modifies the requirement in section 4 to
    "keep intact all notices".

    c) You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this
    License to anyone who comes into possession of a copy.  This
    License will therefore apply, along with any applicable section 7
    additional terms, to the whole of the work, and all its parts,
    regardless of how they are packaged.  This License gives no
    permission to license the work in any other way, but it does not
    invalidate such permission if You have separately received it.

    d) If the work has interactive user interfaces, each must display
    Appropriate Legal Notices; however, if the Program has interactive
    interfaces that do not display Appropriate Legal Notices, Your
    work need not make them do so.

  A compilation of a Covered Work with other separate and independent
works, which are not by their nature extensions of the Covered Work,
and which are not combined with it such as to form a larger program,
in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an
"aggregate" if the compilation and its resulting copyright are not
used to limit the access or legal rights of the compilation's users
beyond what the individual works permit.  Inclusion of a Covered Work
in an aggregate does not cause this License to apply to the other
parts of the aggregate.

  6. Distributing Non-Source Forms.

  You may distribute a Covered Work in object code form under the terms
of sections 4 and 5, provided that You also distribute the
machine-readable Corresponding Source under the terms of this License,
in one of these ways:

    a) Distribute the object code in, or embodied in, a physical product
    (including a physical distribution medium), accompanied by the
    Corresponding Source fixed on a durable physical medium
    customarily used for software interchange.

    b) Distribute the object code in, or embodied in, a physical product
    (including a physical distribution medium), accompanied by a
    written offer, valid for at least three years and valid for as
    long as You offer spare parts or customer support for that product
    model, to give anyone who possesses the object code either (1) a
    copy of the Corresponding Source for all the software in the
    product that is covered by this License, on a durable physical
    medium customarily used for software interchange, for a price no
    more than Your reasonable cost of physically performing this
    distributing of source, or (2) access to copy the
    Corresponding Source from a network server at no charge.

    c) Distribute individual copies of the object code with a copy of the
    written offer to provide the Corresponding Source.  This
    alternative is allowed only occasionally and noncommercially, and
    only if You received the object code with such an offer, in accord
    with subsection 6b.

    d) Distribute the object code by offering access from a designated
    place (gratis or for a charge), and offer equivalent access to the
    Corresponding Source in the same way through the same place at no
    further charge.  You need not require recipients to copy the
    Corresponding Source along with the object code.  If the place to
    copy the object code is a network server, the Corresponding Source
    may be on a different server (operated by You or a third party)
    that supports equivalent copying facilities, provided You maintain
    clear directions next to the object code saying where to find the
    Corresponding Source.  Regardless of what server hosts the
    Corresponding Source, You remain obligated to ensure that it is
    available for as long as needed to satisfy these requirements.

    e) Distribute the object code using peer-to-peer transmission, provided
    You inform other peers where the object code and Corresponding
    Source of the work are being offered to the general public at no
    charge under subsection 6d.

  A "User Product" is either (1) a "consumer product", which means any
tangible personal property which is normally used for personal, family,
or household purposes, or (2) anything designed or sold for incorporation
into a dwelling.  In determining whether a product is a consumer product,
doubtful cases shall be resolved in favor of coverage.  For a particular
product received by a particular user, "normally used" refers to a
typical or common use of that class of product, regardless of the status
of the particular user or of the way in which the particular user
actually uses, or expects or is expected to use, the product.  A product
is a consumer product regardless of whether the product has substantial
commercial, industrial or non-consumer uses, unless such uses represent
the only significant mode of use of the product.

  "Installation Information" for a User Product means any methods,
procedures, authorization keys, or other information required to install
and execute modified versions of a Covered Work in that User Product from
a modified version of its Corresponding Source.  The information must
suffice to ensure that the continued functioning of the modified object
code is in no case prevented or interfered with solely because
modification has been made.

  If You distribute an object code work under this section in, or with, or
specifically for use in, a User Product, and the distributing occurs as
part of a transaction in which the right of possession and use of the
User Product is transferred to the recipient in perpetuity or for a
fixed term (regardless of how the transaction is characterized), the
Corresponding Source distributed under this section must be accompanied
by the Installation Information.  But this requirement does not apply
if neither You nor any third party retains the ability to install
modified object code on the User Product (for example, the work has
been installed in ROM).

  The requirement to provide Installation Information does not include a
requirement to continue to provide support service, warranty, or updates
for a work that has been modified or installed by the recipient, or for
the User Product in which it has been modified or installed.  Access to a
network may be denied when the modification itself materially and
adversely affects the operation of the network or violates the rules and
protocols for communication across the network.

  Corresponding Source distributed, and Installation Information provided,
in accord with this section must be in a format that is publicly
documented (and with an implementation available to the public in
source code form), and must require no special password or key for
unpacking, reading or copying.

  7. Additional Terms.

  "Additional permissions" are terms that supplement the terms of this
License by making exceptions from one or more of its conditions.
Additional permissions that are applicable to the entire Program shall
be treated as though they were included in this License, to the extent
that they are valid under applicable law.  If additional permissions
apply only to part of the Program, that part may be used separately
under those permissions, but the entire Program remains governed by
this License without regard to the additional permissions.

  When You distribute a copy of a Covered Work, You may at Your option
remove any additional permissions from that copy, or from any part of
it.  (Additional permissions may be written to require their own
removal in certain cases when You modify the work.)  You may place
additional permissions on material, added by You to a Covered Work,
for which You have or can give appropriate copyright permission.

  Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, for material You
add to a Covered Work, You may (if authorized by the copyright holders of
that material) supplement the terms of this License with terms:

    a) Disclaiming warranty or limiting liability differently from the
    terms of sections 14 and 15 of this License; or

    b) Requiring preservation of specified reasonable legal notices or
    author attributions in that material; or

    c) Prohibiting misrepresentation of the origin of that material, or
    requiring that modified versions of such material be marked in
    reasonable ways as different from the original version; or

    d) Limiting the use for publicity purposes of names of licensors or
    authors of the material; or

    e) Declining to grant rights under trademark law for use of some
    trade names, trademarks, or service marks; or

    f) Requiring indemnification of licensors and authors of that
    material by anyone who distributes the material (or modified versions of
    it) with contractual assumptions of liability to the recipient, for
    any liability that these contractual assumptions directly impose on
    those licensors and authors.

  All other non-permissive additional terms are considered "further
restrictions" within the meaning of section 9.  If the Program as You
received it, or any part of it, contains a notice stating that it is
governed by this License along with a term that is a further
restriction, You may remove that term.  If a license document contains
a further restriction but permits relicensing or distributing under this
License, You may add to a Covered Work material governed by the terms
of that license document, provided that the further restriction does
not survive such relicensing or distributing.

  Additional terms may be stated in the form of a separately written
license or stated as exceptions to or qualifications of this License.

  8. Termination.

  You may not copy, distribute or modify a Covered Work except as
expressly provided under this License.  Any unauthorized act of
copying, distribution or modification automatically terminates Your
rights under this License (including any patent licenses granted under
the third paragraph of section 10).

  However, if You cease all violation of this License, then Your
license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated (a)
provisionally, unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and
finally terminates Your license, and (b) permanently, if the copyright
holder fails to notify You of the violation by some reasonable means
prior to 60 days after the cessation.

  Moreover, Your license from a particular copyright holder is
reinstated permanently if the copyright holder notifies You of the
violation by some reasonable means, this is the first time You have
received notice of violation of this License (for any work) from that
copyright holder, and You cure the violation prior to 30 days after
Your receipt of the notice.

  Termination of Your rights under this section does not terminate the
licenses of parties who have received copies or rights from You under
this License.  If Your rights have been terminated and not permanently
reinstated, You do not qualify to receive new licenses for the same
material under section 9.

  9. Automatic Licensing of Downstream Recipients.

  Each time You distribute a Covered Work, the recipient automatically
receives a license from the original licensors, to run, copy, modify
and distribute that work, subject to this License.

  You may not impose any further restrictions on the exercise of the
rights granted or affirmed under this License.  For example, You may
not impose a license fee, royalty, or other charge for exercise of
rights granted under this License, and You may not initiate litigation
(including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that
any patent claim is infringed by making, using, selling, offering for
sale, or importing the Program or any portion of it.

  10. Patents.

  A "contributor" is a copyright holder who authorizes use under this
License of the Program or a work on which the Program is based.  The
work thus licensed is called the contributor's "contributor version".

  A contributor's "essential patent claims" are all patent claims
owned or controlled by the contributor, whether already acquired or
hereafter acquired, that would be infringed by some manner, permitted
by this License, of making, using, or selling its contributor version,
but do not include claims that would be infringed only as a
consequence of further modification of the contributor version.  For
purposes of this definition, "control" includes the right to grant
patent sublicenses in a manner consistent with the requirements of
this License.

  Each contributor grants You a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free
patent license under the contributor's essential patent claims, to
make, use, sell, offer for sale, import and otherwise run, copy,
modify and distribute the contents of its contributor version.

  In the following two paragraphs, a "patent license" is any express
agreement or commitment, however denominated, not to enforce a patent
(such as an express permission to practice a patent or covenant not to
sue for patent infringement).  To "grant" such a patent license to a
party means to make such an agreement or commitment not to enforce a
patent against the party.

  If You distribute a Covered Work, knowingly relying on a patent license,
and the Corresponding Source of the work is not available for anyone
to copy, free of charge and under the terms of this License, through a
publicly available network server or other readily accessible means,
then You must either (1) cause the Corresponding Source to be so
available, or (2) arrange, in a manner consistent with the
requirements of this License, to extend the patent license to
downstream recipients.  "Knowingly relying" means You have actual
knowledge that, but for the patent license, Your distributing the Covered
Work in a country, or Your recipient's use of the Covered Work in a
country, would infringe one or more identifiable patents in that
country that You have reason to believe are valid.

  A patent license is "discriminatory" if it does not include within
the scope of its coverage, prohibits the exercise of, or is
conditioned on the non-exercise of one or more of the rights that are
specifically granted under this License.  You may not distribute a covered
work if You are a party to an arrangement with a third party that is
in the business of distributing software, under which You make payment
to the third party based on the extent of Your activity of distributing
the work, and under which the third party grants, to any of the
parties who would receive the Covered Work from You, a discriminatory
patent license (a) in connection with copies of the Covered Work
distributed by You (or copies made from those copies), or (b) primarily
for and in connection with specific products or compilations that
contain the Covered Work, unless You entered into that arrangement,
or that patent license was granted, prior to 28 March 2007.

  Nothing in this License shall be construed as excluding or limiting
any implied license or other defenses to infringement that may
otherwise be available to You under applicable patent law.

  11. Liberty or Death.

  If conditions are imposed on You (whether by court order, agreement
or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do
not excuse You from the conditions of this License.  If You cannot
distribute a Covered Work in a way that would satisfy simultaneously Your
requirements under this License and any pertinent obligations
extrinsic to this License, then as a consequence You may not distribute it
at all.  For example, if You agree to terms that obligate You to
collect a royalty for further distributing from those to whom You distribute
the Program, the only way You could satisfy both those terms and this
License would be to refrain entirely from distributing the Program.

  12. Compatibility with GNU GPL and GNU AGPL.

  Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, You have
permission to relicense any Covered Work under the terms of any
version of the GNU General Public License and any version of the GNU
Affero General Public License published by the Free Software
Foundation.

  13. New Versions of this License.

  The License Steward may publish new versions of GPL.next.  Each
version will be given a distinguishing version number. You may
distribute a Covered Work under the terms of the version of GPL.next
under which the Program is licensed, or under the terms of any
subsequent version published by the License Steward.

  14. Disclaimer of Warranty.

  To the extent permitted by applicable law, the Program is provided
under this License on an "as is" basis, without warranty of any kind,
either express, implied, or statutory, including, without limitation,
warranties that the Program is free of defects, merchantable, fit for
a particular purpose or non-infringing.  The entire risk as to the
quality and performance of the Program is with You.  Should the
Program prove defective in any respect, You assume the cost of all
necessary servicing, repair or correction.  This disclaimer of
warranty constitutes an essential part of this License. No use of the
Program is authorized under this License except under this disclaimer.

  15. Limitation of Liability.

  In no event unless required by applicable law or agreed to in
writing will any copyright holder, or any other party who modifies
and/or distributes the Program as permitted above, be liable to You
for damages, including any general, special, incidental or
consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use the
Program (including but not limited to loss of data or data being
rendered inaccurate or losses sustained by You or third parties or a
failure of the Program to operate with any other programs), even if
such holder or other party has been advised of the possibility of such
damages.