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1<html><head><title>Toybox License</title>
2<!--#include file="header.html" -->
3
4<h2>Toybox is released under the following "zero clause" BSD license:</h2>
5
6<blockquote>
7<p>Copyright (C) 2006 by Rob Landley &lt;rob@landley.net&gt;
8
9<p>Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any
10purpose with or without fee is hereby granted.</p>
11
12<p>THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
13WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
14MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
15ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
16WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
17ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
18OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.</p>
19</blockquote>
20
21<p>The text of the above license is included in the file LICENSE in the source.</p>
22
23<h2>Why 0BSD?</h2>
24
25<p>As with <a href=https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>CC0</a>,
26<a href=http://unlicense.org>unlicense</a>, and <a href=http://wtfpl.net/>wtfpl</a>,
27the intent is to place the licensed material into the public domain,
28which after decades of FUD (such as the time OSI's ex-lawyer compared
29<a href=http://www.cod5.org/archive/>placing code into the public domain</a> to
30<a href=http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6225>abandoning trash by the
31side of a highway</a>) is considered somehow unsafe. But if some random third
32party
33<a href=https://github.com/mkj/dropbear/blob/master/libtomcrypt/LICENSE>takes
34public domain code</a> and slaps <a href=http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/gnuzip/gnuzip-25/gzip/gzip.c>some other license on it</a>, then it's fine.</p>
35
36<p>To work around this perception, the above license is a standard 2-clause BSD
37license <a href=https://github.com/landley/toybox/commit/ee86b1d8e25cb0ca9d418b33eb0dc5e7716ddc1e>minus the half sentence</a>
38requiring text copied verbatim into derived works. If 2BSD is
39ok, the 0BSD should be ok, despite being equivalent to placing code in the
40public domain.</p>
41
42<p>Modifying the license in this way avoids the hole android toolbox fell into where
43<a href=https://github.com/android/platform_system_core/blob/fd4c6b0a3a25921a9fe24691a695d715aecb6afe/toolbox/NOTICE>33 copies of BSD license text</a>
44were concatenated together when copyright dates changed, or the strange
45solution the busybox developers used to resolve tension between GPLv2's "no
46additional restrictions" and BSD's "you must include this large hunk of text"
47by sticking the two licenses at
48<a href=http://git.busybox.net/busybox/tree/networking/ping.c?id=887a1ad57fe978cd320be358effbe66df8a068bf>opposite ends of the file</a> and hoping nobody
49noticed.</a>
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