| Author | Mike Stephenson |
|---|---|
| Published | 1989 |
| Free software | Yes[citation needed] |
| OSI approved | Yes |
| GPL compatible | No[1] |
| Copyleft | Yes |
The NetHack General Public License is a copyleft software license primarily used by the roguelike game NetHack. It is certified as an open source license by the Open Source Initiative.
The license was written in 1989 by Mike Stephenson, who patterned it after the GNU bison license (which was written by Richard Stallman in 1988).[2] Like the Bison license, and Stallman's later GNU General Public License, the NetHack license was written to allow the free sharing and modification of the source code under its protection. At the same time, the license explicitly states that the source code is not covered by any warranty, thus protecting the original authors from litigation.
Derivative works
The NetHack GPL requires all derivative works to be distributed under the same license (except that the creator of a derivative work is allowed to offer warranty protection on the new work). The derivative work is required to indicate the modifications made and the dates of changes. In addition, the source code of the derivative work must be made available, free of charge (except for nominal distribution fees).
References
- ^ Georg C. F. Greve. "Brave GNU World - Issue #35". http://www.gnu.org/brave-gnu-world/issue-35.en.html. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
- ^ GNU Bison is no longer distributed under the original Bison license; it has been distributed under an extension of the GNU General Public License since at least 1991.[1]
External links
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