University of Illinois / NCSA Open Source License

The University of Illinois / NCSA Open Source License (UI / NCSAOSL) is a permissive open source license based on the MIT license and the BSD license . By combining parts of the two licenses, the license tries to be clearer and more precise than either of the other two. The UI / NCSAOSL is OSI-tested, counts as a free software license, is GPL compatible, but not a copyleft license.

The license is the result of efforts by a University of Illinois committee established in 2001. The goal was to create a new license standard for the NCSA and the worldwide software community. The UL / NCSAOSL was on 28 March 2002 during a meeting of OSI as open source license certified.

Source code that is under the NCSA license can be used in proprietary products as opposed to the obligations that copyleft licenses require. The NCSA license is compatible with all versions of the GPL .

Expressions

Original text

The following text is a license template. The information between angle brackets is filled out.

Copyright (c) <YEAR> <OWNER ORGANIZATION NAME>.  All rights reserved.

Developed by: <NAME OF DEVELOPMENT GROUP>
              <NAME OF INSTITUTION>
              <URL FOR DEVELOPMENT GROUP/INSTITUTION>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to
deal with the Software without restriction, including without limitation the
rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or
sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
  1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
     this list of conditions and the following disclaimers.
  2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimers in the
     documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
  3. Neither the names of <NAME OF DEVELOPMENT GROUP>, <NAME OF
     INSTITUTION>, nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse
     or promote products derived from this Software without specific prior
     written permission.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
CONTRIBUTORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS
WITH THE SOFTWARE.

German translation

Note: This translation is not legally valid and may only be added to a product as a supplement to the English version!

Copyright (c) <JAHR> <URHEBER> Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Entwickelt von: <NAME DES PROJEKTS>
               <NAME DER INSTITUTION>
               <WEBSEITE DES PROJEKTS/INSTITUTS>

Hiermit wird jeder Person, die eine Kopie dieser Software und
derer Dokumentation besitzt, die Erlaubnis gegeben, mit dieser
Software ohne Beschränkung zu handeln, was keine Einschränkung
bezüglich des Nutzens, Kopierens, Veränderns, Zusammenführens,
Veröffentlichens, Weiterverteilens, Unterlizenzierens und/oder
Verkaufens von Kopien der Software sowie das Weitergeben dieser
Rechte an andere Personen einschließt,
und zwar unter den folgenden Bedingungen:
   1. Weiterverteilte Kopien des Quellcodes müssen obige
      Urheberrechtshinweise, diese Liste und die folgenden
      Haftungsablehnungen enthalten.
   2. Weiterverteilungen in binärer Form müssen die Urheberrechtshinweise,
      diese Liste von Bedingungen sowie die folgenden Haftungsablehnungen
      entweder durch die Dokumentation und/oder andere Materialien,
      die mit der Binärversion zur Verfügung gestellt wurden, wiedergeben können.
   3. Weder die Namen von <NAME DES PROJEKTS>, <NAME DER INSTITUTION>,
      noch die Namen der Mitentwickler dürfen für Werbung für abgeleitete Produkte
      dieser Software genutzt werden, falls keine explizite Erlaubnis vorliegt.

Die Software wird im Ist-Zustand zur Verfügung gestellt, ohne
jegliche Garantie irgendeiner Art, ausdrücklich oder impliziert,
einschließlich (aber nicht begrenzt auf) Gebrauchstauglichkeit,
Funktionieren für einen bestimmten Zweck und Nichtverletzung.
Auf keinen Fall sind die Mitentwickler oder Urheber haftbar
für jegliche Ansprüche, Schäden oder andere 
Verantwortung, weder in einer Vertragswirksamkeit, einem
Vergehen oder andererweise, die sich aus dem Nutzen der Software
oder anderen Dingen in Verbindung mit der Software ergeben.

Comparison with other licenses

The NCSA license is template-based, like the MIT / X11 license and the BSD licenses.

The main features of the NCSA license are based on the MIT license; the NCSA license makes it clear that it is applied to the software and all documentation files and is more precise than the BSD license in terms of the transfer of rights.

The three license sections are almost identical to those of the modified BSD license. It requires that redistributions include the license and protects the names of developers from appearing in advertisements for derivative products without permission. Here the NCSA license is more precise than the MIT license, which does not differentiate between redistribution as source code or as object files .

The NCSA license moved Lawrence E. Rosen of the OSI to write the Academic Free License . The AFL is more complex than the MIT, BSD or NCSA licenses and also covers other areas such as patent and trademark law.

Web links

• University of Illinois / NCSA Open Source License template
• Illinois Open Source License - Office of Technology Management

Individual evidence

1. ^ Richard Stallman: Various Licenses and Comments about Them . Free Software Foundation. Retrieved July 8, 2007.