Welcome to The Common Good Public License Website!


The Common Good Public License BETA 1.0
Published 2003-11-20


Preamble

The licenses for most software are designed to limit an Original Work's distribution.  The Common Good Public License seeks to do the opposite by securing an Original Work's wide spread distribution, modification, and use by as many people as possible.

To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain duties and responsibilities for you when you use the software, distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.

The License has been inspired by and we acknowledge the work done by the originators and supporters of  the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Natural Step (TNS), the Free Software Foundation, and people everywhere who support and work for a sustainable and educated future.  It is our hope to bring together these three positive elements for the common good and help create a sustainable future of communication and technological development.


Terms and Conditions

A. Terms and Rights under a Grant of Copyright License.
Provided that You meet all the conditions set forth for each of the following Rights, the Licensor hereby grants You a royalty-free, non-exclusive, non-sublicenseable, world-wide, perpetual license to the following Rights:

    0. Right to Own.
You have the right to receive and own a copy of the Original Work provided that You meet all the conditions defined in Terms and Conditions, C. Conditions and Duties.

    1. Right to Copy.
You have the right to create copies of the Original Work provided that You meet all the conditions defined in Terms and Conditions, C. Conditions and Duties.

    2. Right to Modify.
You have the right to modify and create Derivative Works from the Original Work provided that You meet all the conditions defined in Terms and Conditions, C. Conditions and Duties.

    3. Right to Publish.
You have the right to publish and distribute copies of the Original Work and Derivative Works in any media to the public provided that You meet all the conditions defined in Terms and Conditions, C. Conditions and Duties.

    4. Right to Review.
You have the right to review, display or perform the Original Work publicly provided that You meet all the conditions defined in Terms and Conditions, C. Conditions and Duties.

B. Terms and Rights under a Grant of Patent License.
Licensor hereby grants You a world-wide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, non-sublicenseable license, under patent claims owned or controlled by the Licensor that are embodied in the Original Work as furnished by the Licensor ("Licensed Claims") to own, make, use, sell, offer for sale and review the Original Works and / or Derivative Works provided that You meet all the conditions defined in Terms and Conditions, C. Conditions and Duties.

C. Conditions and Duties.
The following Conditions and Duties are generally listed and should be applied as required by each Right in section A. Terms and Rights under a Grant of Copyright License. and as generally required in section B. Terms and Rights under a Grant of Patent License.under Terms and Conditions:

    0.0. Duty to Share.

        0.1. Any and all Derivative Works made from Original Works licensed under this license must themselves be licensed under this license.

        0.2. You can combine the whole or any part of the Original Works and / or Derivative Works with Other Works licensed under different licenses so long as the different licenses are compatible with this License, the different licenses effectively grant no more and no less Rights than the Rights granted in this License under section A. Terms and Rights under a Grant of Copyright License without limitations on time or scope, and most importantly satisfy the condition directly below this one, part 0.3. of this section 0.0. Duty to Share defined here in C. Conditions and Duties.  To combine the whole or any part of the Original Works and / or Derivative Works with Other Works licensed under different licenses those licenses must have a provision requiring the distribution of the Source Data along with the Original Work and / or Derivative Work licensed under these other licenses. If such additional licenses are used on some parts of an Original Work and / or Derivative Work then any part of an Original Work and / or Derivative Work licensed under this license shall remain so and may not be licensed under any other license except by the copyright holder for a given part.

        0.3. You hereby agree to provide a usable copy of the Source Data of the Original Work and / or Derivative Work along with each copy of the Original Work that You distribute if the Original Work and / or Derivative Work itself is not already Source Data. You reserve the right to satisfy this obligation by placing a usable copy of the Source Data in an information repository reasonably calculated to permit inexpensive and convenient access by licensees for as long as You continue to distribute the Original Work and / or Derivative Work, and by publishing the address of that information repository in a notice immediately following the copyright notice that applies to the Original Work and / or Derivative Work.

        0.4. You must cause any Derivative Work to carry prominent notices stating that You made modifications and the date of any change.

        0.5. You must cause the whole or any part of the Original Work and / or Derivative Work that you distribute or publish to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.

        0.6. You must conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the Original Work and / or Derivative Work a copy of this License along with any Original Works and / or Derivative Works.
   
    1.0. Duty to Environment.
By your ownership, distribution, modification, and review of this Original Work and / or Derivative Work:

        1.1. You do not prevent the reduction of Nature's functions and diversity being systematically subject to increasing concentrations of materials and substances extracted from the earth.

        1.2. You do not prevent the reduction of Nature's functions and diversity being systematically subject to increasing concentrations of materials and substances produced by society.

        1.3. You do not prevent the reduction of Nature's functions and diversity being systematically impoverished by physical displacement, over harvesting, or other forms of ecosystem manipulation.

        1.4. You do not prevent the reduction of Nature's functions and diversity being systematically impoverished due to the unfair and inefficient use of resources in order to meet human needs globally.

    2.0 Duty to Humanity.
By your ownership, distribution, modification, and review You do not violate the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS adopted and proclaimed by the UN General Assembly Resolution 217 A (http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html), see Appendix [1] which is hereby considered part of the Terms and Conditions of this License.

D. External Deployment.
The term "External Deployment" means the use or distribution of the Original Work or Derivative Works in any way such that the Original Work or Derivative Works may be used by anyone other than You, whether the Original Work or Derivative Works are distributed to those persons or made available as an application intended for use over a computer network. As an express condition for the grants of license hereunder, You agree that any External Deployment by You of a Derivative Work shall be deemed a distribution and shall be licensed to all under the terms of this License.

E. Attribution Rights.
You must retain, in the Source Code of any Derivative Works that You create, all copyright, patent or trademark notices from the Source Code of the Original Work, as well as any notices of licensing and any descriptive text identified therein as an "Attribution Notice." You must cause the Source Code for any Derivative Works that You create to carry a prominent Attribution Notice reasonably calculated to inform recipients that You have modified the Original Work.

F. Exclusions From License Grant.
Nothing in this License shall be deemed to grant any rights to trademarks, copyrights, patents, trade secrets or any other intellectual property of Licensor except as expressly stated herein. No patent license is granted to make, use, sell or offer to sell embodiments of any patent claims other than the Licensed Claims defined in section B.Terms and Rights under a Grant of Patent License. No right is granted to the trademarks of Licensor even if such marks are included in the Original Work. Nothing in this License shall be interpreted to prohibit the Licensor from licensing under different terms from this License any Original Work that the Licensor otherwise would have a right to license.

G. Forward Compatible License.
CGPL.org may publish revised and/or new versions of the CGPL from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the CGPL.org. If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by CGPL.org.

H. Acceptance and Termination.
If You distribute copies of the Original Work or a Derivative Work, You must make a reasonable effort under the circumstances to obtain the express and volitional assent of recipients to the terms of this License. Nothing else but this License (or another written agreement between Licensor and You) grants You permission to create Derivative Works based upon the Original Work or to exercise any of the rights granted in sections A. Terms and Rights under a Grant of Copyright License and B. Terms and Rights under a Grant of Patent License herein, and any attempt to do so except under the terms of this License (or another written agreement between Licensor and You) is expressly prohibited by U.S. copyright law, the equivalent laws of other countries, and by international treaty. Therefore, by exercising any of the rights granted to You in sections A and B herein, You indicate Your acceptance of this License and all of its Terms and Conditions. This License shall terminate immediately and you may no longer exercise any of the rights granted to You by this License upon Your failure to honor the provision in section C. Conditions and Duties herein.

You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from You under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.

You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it.

I. Mutual Termination for Patent Action.
This License shall terminate automatically and You may no longer exercise any of the rights granted to You by this License if You file a lawsuit in any court alleging that any CGPL licensed Original Work infringes any patent claims that are essential to own, use, copy, modify, publish, or reviewthat Original Work.

If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of an Original Work by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of an Original Work.

If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other circumstances.

It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the integrity of the free software distribution system, which is implemented by public license practices. Many people have made generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed through that system in reliance on consistent application of that system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot impose that choice.

This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a consequence of the rest of this License.

J. Jurisdiction, Venue and Governing Law.
Any action or suit relating to this License may be brought only in the courts of a jurisdiction wherein the Licensor resides or in which Licensor conducts its primary business, and under the laws of that jurisdiction excluding its conflict-of-law provisions. The application of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods is expressly excluded. Any use of the Original Work outside the scope of this License or after its termination shall be subject to the requirements and penalties of the U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 101 et seq., the equivalent laws of other countries, and international treaty. This section shall survive the termination of this License.

K. Attorneys Fees.
In any action to enforce the terms of this License or seeking damages relating thereto, the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover its costs and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys' fees and costs incurred in connection with such action, including any appeal of such action. This section shall survive the termination of this License

L. Warranty and Disclaimer of Warranty.
Licensor warrants that the copyright in and to the Original Work is owned by the Licensor or that the Original Work is distributed by Licensor under a valid current license from the copyright owner. Except as expressly stated in the immediately proceeding sentence, the Original Work is provided under this License on an "AS IS" BASIS and WITHOUT WARRANTY, either express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY OF THE ORIGINAL WORK IS WITH YOU. This DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY constitutes an essential part of this License. No license to Original Work is granted here under except under this disclaimer.

BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

M. Limitation of Liability.
Under no circumstances and under no legal theory, whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise, shall the Licensor be liable to any person for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising as a result of this License or the use of the Original Work including, without limitation, damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other commercial damages or losses. This limitation of liability shall not apply to liability for death or personal injury resulting from Licensor's negligence to the extent applicable law prohibits such limitation. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so this exclusion and limitation may not apply to You.

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

N. Miscellaneous.
This License represents the complete agreement concerning the subject matter hereof. If any provision of this License is held to be unenforceable, such provision shall be reformed only to the extent necessary




Appendix [1]

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

(other language versions)



Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."

PREAMBLE

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1.

Article 2.

Article 3.

Article 4.

Article 5.

Article 6.

Article 7.

Article 8.

Article 9.

Article 10.

Article 11.

Article 12.

Article 13.

Article 14.

Article 15.

Article 16.

Article 17.

Article 18.

Article 19.

Article 20.

Article 21.

Article 22.

Article 23.

Article 24.

Article 25.

Article 26.

Article 27.

Article 28.

Article 29.

Article 30.