Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer

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.

Famous quotes containing the words historical, permission and/or notice:

    Some of us still get all weepy when we think about the Gaia Hypothesis, the idea that earth is a big furry goddess-creature who resembles everybody’s mom in that she knows what’s best for us. But if you look at the historical record—Krakatoa, Mt. Vesuvius, Hurricane Charley, poison ivy, and so forth down the ages—you have to ask yourself: Whose side is she on, anyway?
    Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)

    Who is this Renaissance? Where did he come from? Who gave him permission to cram the Republic with his execrable daubs?
    Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)

    Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.
    Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)