DFSG compatible Yes OSI approved Yes Copyleft No | FSF approved Yes GPL compatible Yes | |
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The ISC license is a permissive free software license written by the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC). It is meant to be functionally equivalent to the simplified BSD and the MIT licenses, differing in its removal of language deemed unnecessary following the global adoption of the Berne Convention. Initially used for ISC's own software releases, it has since become the preferred license of projects such as OpenBSD and Node.js's npm.
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A template of this license is:
ISC License Copyright (c) ''[year(s)]'', ''[copyright holder]'' Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.History
Before accepting the license as a free software license, the Free Software Foundation asked for clarification of the text. In July 2007, as a result, "and distribute" was changed to "and/or distribute". The Free Software Foundation eventually approved the ISC license as a lax, permissive free software license, compatible with the GNU GPL. As of May 2016, The OpenBSD template still uses the original "and distribute" phrasing, due to concerns about the modified version.