Minix1: Copying and Use Policies

rev. 13 February 2007

All material on this site not otherwise attributed is copyright ©1994-2007 Albert S. Woodhull (ASW). Permission to copy ASW's material for any purpose is granted, provided that the source is acknowledged and copyright and authorship notices are retained in any copy. Nevertheless, ASW would appreciate being informed in advance of any such use. He may know of additional information or have a newer version in preparation.

Any material on this site that is noted as having been authored by anyone other than Albert S. Woodhull or that bears the copyright of anyone other than Albert S. Woodhull may not be copied without the permission of the original author or copyright owner unless this is explicitly permitted within the document (i.e., ASW may have obtained permission to repost but that permission doesn't automatically transfer to you). Even if permission is given in the document it would be courteous to ask the original writer and and it would be prudent to see whether a newer version exists.

The above also applies to contributed software, both binaries and source files, whether or not individual files carry authorship or copyright notices. In accepting contributed software it is expected that any contributor has ascertained that he or she has the right to allow copying of any part of a package that may have been written by anyone other than the contributor.

Minix software, source code, and documentation supplied as part of the Minix distribution is subject to the Minix license, which was written by lawyers. Minix is open source. The Minix license changed in April 2000, and applies retroactively to all previous Minix distributions, even though they still carry the old, more restrictive license within. The Minix license-to-use, as distributed with Minix 2 releases after April 2000, can be seen here in the file LICENSE. (Translation in normal language: Redistribution allowed. Keep the Copyright notice. Don't hide the Copyright notice. Don't say we endorse what you do with it. Don't blame us if it blows up in your face.)

With the release of Minix 3 the wording of the Minix license has been changed to change the copyright owner from Prentice-Hall to the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Otherwise the terms of the license remain the same. The 2006 Minix 3 license is believed to supercede all earlier licenses, including the April 2000 license is described in the preceding paragraph. The Minix 3 license is posted here on the Minix3.org website.