Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer (HPND)

View Summary of Historic Permission Notice and Disclaimer (HPND) on TLDRLegal » (Disclaimer)

This License has been voluntarily deprecated by its author.

<copyright notice>

Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies[,] [and] that both [that] [the] copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation[, and that the name [of] <copyright holder> [or <related entities>] not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission]. [<copyright holder> makes no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.]

[<copyright holder> DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS[,][.] IN NO EVENT SHALL <copyright holder> BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.]

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Explanation:

Angle brackets hold "fields", e.g. <copyright holder>.

Square brackets hold optional text, e.g. [or <related entities>].

A license can have variations in capitalization and whitespace, and still be considered an instance of this template.

It may be possible to construct a grammatically incorrect license from this template, or one that lacks a disclaimer, or one that includes a double-disclaimer. That is acceptable, as long as it remains impossible to construct a non-OSD-compliant license that matches the pattern.

To promote and protect open source software and communities...

For over 20 years the Open Source Initiative (OSI) has worked to raise awareness and adoption of open source software, and build bridges between open source communities of practice. As a global non-profit, the OSI champions software freedom in society through education, collaboration, and infrastructure, stewarding the Open Source Definition (OSD), and preventing abuse of the ideals and ethos inherent to the open source movement.

Open source software is made by many people and distributed under an OSD-compliant license which grants all the rights to use, study, change, and share the software in modified and unmodified form. Software freedom is essential to enabling community development of open source software.