The Azure License: Meaningful Attribution

I’m updating and re-releasing this from my old blog. Feel free to use the license in any project. No need to attribute me, the license itself is released into the public domain.

Open-source licensing can be a real pain. Some licenses are nearly impossible to decipher, while some (namely—the GNU GPL) are just pure evil.

I have been trying to find a software license which, like the Creative Commons Attribution license, would let the licensee do pretty much anything with the software, except it would require attribution in a meaningful way. That is to say, a non-intrusive mention in the documentation or about box.

The MIT license came closest to this, and it is the base on which the Azure License was written.

A good way to give attribution, as required by the license, would be a friendly “Contains code by Copyright Holder [linked]” or “Special thanks to Copyright Holder [linked]” in the about box.

The Azure License

Copyright (c) {Year} {Copyright Holder}

Attribute to {Copyright Holder} - {url}

You (the licensee) are hereby granted permission, free of charge,
to deal in this software or source code (this "Software") without
restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy,
modify, merge, publish, distribute, and/or sublicense this
Software, subject to the following conditions:

You must give attribution to the party mentioned above, by name and
by hyperlink, in the about box, credits document and/or
documentation of any derivative work using a substantial portion of
this Software.

You may not use the name of the copyright holder(s) to endorse or
promote products derived from this Software without specific prior
written permission.

THIS 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 AUTHORS 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 THIS SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THIS
SOFTWARE.

http://license.azuretalon.com/