Poetic License

I found this when going through old documents. It looks like I wrote it and never posted it. Perhaps I didn’t consider it finished at the time. But looking at it now, I think it’s good enough to share. It’s a redrafting of the BSD licence, in poetic form. Maybe I had plans to do other licences one day; I can’t remember.

I’ve interleaved it with the original license text so you can see how true, or otherwise, I’ve been to it. Enjoy :-)

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

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 
are met:

You may redistribute and use –
as source or binary, as you choose,
and with some changes or without –
this software; let there be no doubt.
But you must meet conditions three,
if in compliance you wish to be.

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 
  notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 
  documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. Neither the name of the <ORGANIZATION> nor the names of its 
   contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived 
   from this software without specific prior written permission.

The first is obvious, of course –
To keep this text within the source.
The second is for binaries
Place in the docs a copy, please.
A moral lesson from this ode –
Don’t strip the copyright on code.

The third applies when you promote:
You must not take, from us who wrote,
our names and make it seem as true
we like or love your version too.
(Unless, of course, you contact us
And get our written assensus.)

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS 
"AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT 
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS 
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE 
COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, 
INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, 
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; 
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER 
CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 
LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN 
ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE 
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

One final point to be laid out
(You must forgive my need to shout):
THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THIS
WHATEVER THING MAY GO AMISS.
EXPRESS, IMPLIED, IT’S ALL THE SAME –
RESPONSIBILITY DISCLAIMED.

WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR LOSS
NO MATTER HOW INCURRED THE COST
THE TYPE OR STYLE OF DAMAGE DONE
WHATE’ER THE LEGAL THEORY SPUN.
THIS STILL REMAINS AS TRUE IF YOU
INFORM US WHAT YOU PLAN TO DO.

When all is told, we sum up thus –
Do what you like, just don’t sue us.

6 thoughts on “Poetic License

  1. Ah! I searched my blog for some of the text from it but couldn’t find it, so assumed I hadn’t. Anyway, worth repeating :-)

  2. Pingback: The Return To ptrace | BSD Now 239 | Jupiter Broadcasting

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