BRL-CAD Copying and Distribution ================================ BRL-CAD is Open Source software with copyright primarily held by the U.S. Government. The source code is controlled and maintained by a core team of Open Source developers working around the world. Those core developers operate under a meritocracy organizational structure adhering to developer guidelines outlined in the HACKING developer's guide and to the legal conventions and requirements outlined in this document. As a unified work, BRL-CAD is made available under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) as published by the Free Software Foundation. As distinctly organized and separate components, parts of BRL-CAD are made available under different licenses for different portions including the BSD license and files in the public domain. The Overview section describes how the various licenses apply to the different portions of BRL-CAD. BRL-CAD is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License along with this file. If you did not, please contact one of the BRL-CAD project administrators listed at the Github project site https://github.com/BRL-CAD/brlcad/ or listed in the AUTHORS file included as part of the distribution. Overview -------- BRL-CAD consists primarily of libraries, applications, scripts, documentation, geometric models, images, data resources, and build infrastructure. The BRL-CAD libraries provide their headers in the include/ directory as well as all of the directories that begin with the prefix "lib" in the src/ directory (e.g. src/librt/). All of BRL-CAD's libraries, applications, and any content lacking a license specification are covered by the terms of the LGPL. Most of BRL-CAD's build infrastructure including files required by the GNU Build System (such as the CMakeLists.txt files), a variety of scripts located in the misc/ and sh/ directories, and the testing infrastructure (scripts and resources) are provided either under the BSD license or are in the public domain. Similarly, most of the geometric models, images, and other data resources are also provided under the BSD license. Refer to each individual file for specific terms. BRL-CAD's documentation consists of manual pages located throughout the package, most of the files in the doc/ directory, and the top-level administrative project text files (e.g. README & AUTHORS). Unless otherwise denoted, all of BRL-CAD's documentation is made available under the terms of the BSD Documentation License (BDL) or are in the public domain. Refer to each document for specific terms. The full text of the LGPL, BDL, and BSD license should be included in the source distribution of BRL-CAD in the doc/legal/ directory. Refer to the full license text for more details, information, requirements, and implications of each license. 3rd-Party Components -------------------- The BRL-CAD package utilizes and redistributes several 3rd party source codes, libraries, and applications. Said 3rd party source code, libraries, and applications all retain their respective agreements, licenses, and copyrights and should be referred to individually for their specific terms. For the purposes of redistribution and legal compatibility for all of BRL-CAD's existing user base, NO 3RD PARTY LIBRARIES SHALL BE INCLUDED THAT ARE UNDER THE TERMS OF THE GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE or any other license with similar legal implications that would impose legal obligations on external codes that utilize BRL-CAD as a library. When referring to BRL-CAD, its source code, documentation, and libraries, the reference is not meant to include or imply 3rd party source code, libraries, and/or applications unless specifically stated otherwise. No endorsement or claim of authorship is implied to any 3rd party asset that is included with BRL-CAD. Copyright --------- All contributions to BRL-CAD have been provided under agreement. By requiring all contributions be given back to the BRL-CAD developers, this agreement allows the BRL-CAD project to continue to grow unhindered. As such, a majority of the source code is copyright by the United States Government as represented by the United States Army Research Laboratory. Authors and other BRL-CAD contributors must comply with the copyright terms for their respective contributions unless otherwise noted or arranged. This includes an implicit assignment of copyright for any and all contributions being made. The following notice should be prominent in the BRL-CAD sources: Copyright (c) 1984-2026 United States Government as represented by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. Contact ------- Questions or comments regarding BRL-CAD legal issues pertaining to copying, linking, licensing, trademark, or otherwise should be directed to the BRL-CAD Development Team at the following address: BRL-CAD Development Team devs@brlcad.org http://brlcad.org --- $Revision$