Licences Legal Info

GNU General Public License (GPL) http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

metamute requires users who make use of software we and others have created to follow the GNU General Public License (GPL), an excerpt of which follows:

GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENCE

Version 2, June 1991

Copyright © 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

Preamble

The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.

To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.

For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.

We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.

Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original authors' reputations.

Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.

The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.

Common Good Public License (CGPL) http://ggpl.org

At a later date metamute is looking to adopt the Common Good Public License (CGPL) or something similar to cover the use of our services and software. The CGPL adds an additional set of social conditions to the GPL's intellectual property (IP) considerations; this is done by including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Natural Step (TNS). An excerpt of the CGPL can be found below:

The Common Good Public License BETA 1.0
Published 2003-11-20

Preamble

The licenses for most software are designed to limit an Original Work's distribution. The Common Good Public License seeks to do the opposite by securing an Original Work's wide spread distribution, modification, and use by as many people as possible.

To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain duties and responsibilities for you when you use the software, distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.

The License has been inspired by and we acknowledge the work done by the originators and supporters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Natural Step (TNS), the Free Software Foundation, and people everywhere who support and work for a sustainable and educated future. It is our hope to bring together these three positive elements for the common good and help create a sustainable future of communication and technological development.