License Help. by SirDude 
 

Baisic Info

The plugins provided here were done by various people in the blender community. They were generous enough to provide the source to you so please respect them. If you use their code:

  • Drop them a line to let them know.
  • Report any bugs and or suggestions for improvement.
  • Give them credit.
  • Give back to the community.
  • If your unsure of a licensing issue be sure to ask the author.

    There are a multitude of diffrent License types here is a brief rundown of some common ones. Make sure you read the license info provided with every plugin you use. When in doubt ask the author!

    More info on specific License types:

    Public Domain

    Public Domain software gives up all copyright. There are no restrictions on what anyone can do with this code. They can remove the authors name from the code, change it at will, release it as a commercial product, and copy it for all their friends.

    BSD-style Licenses

    A BSD-style license allows source and binaries to be modified and redistributed, but adds a few conditions. The license must be kept with the software and the documentation, any advertising must acknowledge the use of the software (and the original authors) and the authors cannot be used to endorse or promote products without permission.

    Artistic Licenses

    The Artistic license take the attitude of "you can make changes if you make them free software, or you can make changes and keep them proprietry, but then you have to go to more trouble to make sure people won't get confused between your proprietry version and the free version". It has special cases to deal with "local" changes where you're just customizing for your workplace (for example), and don't intend to redistribute to the world. It's a fairly complex license to summarize.

    GNU General Public License (GPL)

    The GPL is designed to make the software free, and ensure that all future verions and derivatives are also free software. There are no restrictions on use of the software. If you distribute or modify the software, you have certain responsibilities. You need to make sure the recipient can see what rights they have, and that the modifications are clearly marked.

    Shareware Licenses

    A shareware license allows you to copy the binary format (often forbidding making a profit), and restricts your usage to an evaluation period, after which you must send payment to the author. You have no access to the source code, and modification of the binary is usually forbidden.


    For more information

    I urge you to take a look at the following link which alot of this information was derived from. It explains things in more depth, and does some compairing of the various licenses. License Info

    • The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
    The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.