What license/copyright text to include and where to include it when selling a commercial Python based application?

Robert Kern robert.kern at gmail.com
Mon Apr 12 18:20:54 EDT 2010


On 2010-04-12 17:02 PM, Malcolm Greene wrote:
> Looking for advice on what Python license and copyright text to
> include and where to include it when selling a commercial
> (Windows based) Python based application.

The requirement is fairly broad; there are a number of things you could do to 
satisfy the requirement. Largely, it's up to you as long as the full license 
text is accessible somewhere. I will provide personal, entirely unofficial 
recommendations below, though.

> By license text and copyrights I am refering to the text on this
> page:
>
> PYTHON SOFTWARE FOUNDATION LICENSE VERSION 2
> http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.6.5/license/
>
> By "where to include it" I mean:
>
> 1. What Python license text/copyright text should I place in our
> printed user manual?

The whole license and history text, parts A and B.

> 2. What Python license text/copyright text should I include in
> our online documentation?

The whole thing.

> 3. What Python license text/copyright text should I include in
> product's license text file?

Have a licenses\ directory with a LICENSE_Python.txt containing the whole 
license text. Have other LICENSE_<foo>.txt files for any other third-party 
libraries you use, like the GUI toolkit.

> 4. What Python license text/copyright text should I include in
> application's splash screen and about dialog boxes?

Link to the part of the online documentation that lists the third-party software 
that you use.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
  that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
  an underlying truth."
   -- Umberto Eco




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