Add a LICENSE file so people can find our license easily

For what it's worth, we are aware that "Copyright $YEAR $NAME" is
sufficient notice of copyright on software under US law and
Internationally, and saying Copyright (c) $YEAR $NAME is a bit nutty.
The character sequence (c) has never been ruled to have the same force
in US law as the actual copyright symbol, and that neither of these
US-specific symbols adds anything of value beyond saying "Copyright"
since the Berne convention took effect in the US back in 1989.

Similarly, saying "all rights reserved" doesn't do anything magical
unless your software goes in a time-warp back to when the Buenos Aires
Convention was the general rule.  (And what will they run it on back
then?)  And what would even lead you to say "All Rights Reserved" when
you're explicitly granting most of those rights to anybody receiving
the work in accordance with the 3-clause BSD license?

But still the FOSS community retains these ritual notations out of a
kind of cargo-cult lawyering.  Who knows?  Perhaps one day, if we
write our copyright notices ineptly enough, John Frum will come and
give us a DFSG-compatible license that everybody can get behind.

(Also, I am not a lawyer.  The above should not be taken as legal
advice.  -- Nick)

diff --git a/LICENSE b/LICENSE
new file mode 100644 (file)
index 0000000..319e0e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+Libevent is available for use under the following license, commonly known
+as the 3-clause (or "modified") BSD license:
+
+==============================
+Copyright (c) 2000-2007 Niels Provos <provos@citi.umich.edu>
+Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Niels Provos and Nick Mathewson
+
+Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
+modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
+are met:
+1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
+   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
+2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
+   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
+   documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
+3. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products
+   derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
+
+THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
+IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
+OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
+IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
+INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
+NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
+DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
+THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
+(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF
+THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
+==============================
+
+Portions of Libevent are based on works by others, also made available by
+them under the three-clause BSD license above.  The copyright notices are
+available in the corresponding source files; the license is as above.  Here's
+a list:
+
+log.c:
+   Copyright (c) 2000 Dug Song <dugsong@monkey.org>
+   Copyright (c) 1993 The Regents of the University of California.
+
+strlcpy.c:
+   Copyright (c) 1998 Todd C. Miller <Todd.Miller@courtesan.com>
+
+win32select.c:
+   Copyright (c) 2003 Michael A. Davis <mike@datanerds.net>
+
+evport.c:
+   Copyright (c) 2007 Sun Microsystems

diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 275087e7bc1a4fc6e92e35c7098f47951e5eaa69..22e7d3e35b54778053e6048ab556ed4d88054a42 100644 (file)
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ pkgconfigdir=$(libdir)/pkgconfig
 pkgconfig_DATA=libevent.pc
 
 EXTRA_DIST = \
+       LICENSE \
        autogen.sh evdns.3 \
        event.3 \
        libevent.pc \