Initial check-in. Mostly sort of works. Ish.
1 NETHACK GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
2 (Copyright 1989 M. Stephenson)
4 (Based on the BISON general public license,
5 copyright 1988 Richard M. Stallman)
7 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this
8 license, but changing it is not allowed. You can also use this wording to
9 make the terms for other programs.
11 The license agreements of most software companies keep you at the mercy of
12 those companies. By contrast, our general public license is intended to give
13 everyone the right to share NetHack. To make sure that you get the rights we
14 want you to have, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you
15 these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. Hence this license
18 Specifically, we want to make sure that you have the right to give away
19 copies of NetHack, that you receive source code or else can get it if you
20 want it, that you can change NetHack or use pieces of it in new free
21 programs, and that you know you can do these things.
23 To make sure that everyone has such rights, we have to forbid you to
24 deprive anyone else of these rights. For example, if you distribute copies
25 of NetHack, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You
26 must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you
27 must tell them their rights.
29 Also, for our own protection, we must make certain that everyone finds out
30 that there is no warranty for NetHack. If NetHack is modified by someone
31 else and passed on, we want its recipients to know that what they have is
32 not what we distributed.
34 Therefore we (Mike Stephenson and other holders of NetHack copyrights) make
35 the following terms which say what you must do to be allowed to distribute or
41 1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of NetHack source code as
42 you receive it, in any medium, provided that you keep intact the notices on
43 all files that refer to copyrights, to this License Agreement, and to the
44 absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the NetHack
45 program a copy of this License Agreement along with the program.
47 2. You may modify your copy or copies of NetHack or any portion of it, and
48 copy and distribute such modifications under the terms of Paragraph 1 above
49 (including distributing this License Agreement), provided that you also do the
52 a) cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you
53 changed the files and the date of any change; and
55 b) cause the whole of any work that you distribute or publish, that in
56 whole or in part contains or is a derivative of NetHack or any part
57 thereof, to be licensed at no charge to all third parties on terms
58 identical to those contained in this License Agreement (except that you
59 may choose to grant more extensive warranty protection to some or all
60 third parties, at your option)
62 c) You may charge a distribution fee for the physical act of
63 transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection
64 in exchange for a fee.
66 3. You may copy and distribute NetHack (or a portion or derivative of it,
67 under Paragraph 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
68 Paragraphs 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
70 a) accompany it with the complete machine-readable source code, which
71 must be distributed under the terms of Paragraphs 1 and 2 above; or,
73 b) accompany it with full information as to how to obtain the complete
74 machine-readable source code from an appropriate archive site. (This
75 alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution.)
77 For these purposes, complete source code means either the full source
78 distribution as originally released over Usenet or updated copies of the
79 files in this distribution used to create the object code or executable.
81 4. You may not copy, sublicense, distribute or transfer NetHack except as
82 expressly provided under this License Agreement. Any attempt otherwise to
83 copy, sublicense, distribute or transfer NetHack is void and your rights to
84 use the program under this License agreement shall be automatically
85 terminated. However, parties who have received computer software programs
86 from you with this License Agreement will not have their licenses terminated
87 so long as such parties remain in full compliance.
90 Stated plainly: You are permitted to modify NetHack, or otherwise use parts
91 of NetHack, provided that you comply with the conditions specified above;
92 in particular, your modified NetHack or program containing parts of NetHack
93 must remain freely available as provided in this License Agreement. In
94 other words, go ahead and share NetHack, but don't try to stop anyone else
95 from sharing it farther.