Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer

{{Infobox software license

|author = Bruce A. Dodson{{cite mailing list|url=http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:6305:jggiiehpeekebdbmpopm|title=discuss: approval request: "Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer"|mailing-list=license-discuss|date=29 November 2002|first=Bruce|last=Dodson|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307161541/http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3:mss:6305:jggiiehpeekebdbmpopm|archive-date=7 March 2016}}

|copyright = Bruce A. Dodson

|date = 9 November 2002

|OSI approved = Yes

|Free Software = Yes{{cite web|url=https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html#HPND|work=Various Licenses and Comments about Them|title=Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer|publisher = Free Software Foundation|access-date=29 May 2015}}

|GPL compatible = Yes

|copyleft = No

|linking = Yes

|website = {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129154903/https://opensource.org/licenses/HPND|date=January 29, 2023|title=https://opensource.org/licenses/HPND|nolink=y}}

|deprecated = Yes{{cite web | title=Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer (HPND):Licensing | website=Open Source Initiative OSI | date=2011-06-05 | url=http://opensource.org/licenses/HPND | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605050228/http://opensource.org/licenses/HPND | archive-date=2011-06-05 | url-status=dead | access-date=2023-08-10}}

}}

The Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer (HPND) is an open source license, approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) and verified as GPL-compatible by the Free Software Foundation.

Characteristics

It is unique among the OSI's licenses because of the choices it allows in its construction.

It lets the licensor pick anywhere from 0-2 warranty disclaimers, whether they want to prohibit the author's name from being used in publicity or advertising surrounding a distribution (like in the BSD License), and other spelling and grammar options.

Besides this, the license can be almost functionally identical to the new, 3-clause BSD License (if the option for the no-promotion clause is exercised), or the MIT License (if the option for the no-promotion clause is not exercised).

Variants of this license are in use primarily in older software, including the original BSD kernel. Today,{{when|date=May 2015}} it is most popular to choose either the new 3-clause BSD License or the MIT License to meet the licensing needs of the developer.

This is the only OSI-certified license (excluding the public domain) that can lack a disclaimer of warranty.

The license was deprecated by its author, Bruce A. Dodson, prior to 24 September 2009.{{cite web | title=Legacy approval request | website=BSD license (PostgreSQL variant) | date=2009-09-24 | url=https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2009-September/000876.html | access-date=2023-08-10}}

References

{{reflist|2}}