View source for Avisynth wiki:Copyrights

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== Preamble - AviSynth Wiki history ==
AviSynth is free software. You may use it for free commercially, or non-commercially. You also may copy, modify (it is open-source) and distribute it for free, but under the same conditions (covered by license).

AviSynth comes with documentation about its usage. It was initially written mainly by AviSynth v2 developers Richard Berg, Klaus Post 'sh0dan', Wilbert Dijkhof 'WilbertD', Ernst Peche  'Warpenterprises' (on basis of the original v1 articles by Ben Rudiak-Gould). The intent of the AviSynth developers is that this documentation should also be free, because the AviSynth users community should have means to improve, maintain and expand the documentation by sharing their experience. To make this possible, the AviSynth developers opened up the existing AviSynth documentation for editing by AviSynth community volunteers. This was done at a website with editable content and structure (as a wiki). The wiki at www.avisynth.org was one of first wikis (at 2002, check it out [http://web.archive.org/web/20020915022858/http://www.avisynth.org/ here]).

It is also a good place to bring information together as posted in the AviSynth forums. They contain a lot of useful information, but it is very scattered and not very convenient to find ready-to-use solutions.

As a result, we have got some core documentation corrections and many new pages with substantial contribution (scripts, methods, information) to the wiki content! The project became rather mature. The main goal of the wiki was good documentation, and issues like copyright and licensing were not that important at that time. Contributors are listed at wiki pages history, [[Old_wiki_contributions|RecentChanges]] (and CVS pages at SourceForge). 

In practice, the implied (silent) license terms of the AviSynth documentation wiki were probably as follows:

* Anybody could use the documentation and the scripts for free. It was civil to credit the developers and script authors.
* Anybody could improve documentation, and could share his/her script or other experiences.
* All contributions could be re-used under the same conditions. So, others could improve wiki.
* Significant contributions were attributed to their authors.
* AviSynth developers were allowed to and did merge some contributions to the official documentation.

This form of gentlemen agreement was quite good at that time.

In 2006-2007 we started to search for some standard form of explicit free license:

* for communication with other web-resources;
* because of questions about license terms of documentation translations;
* to have uniform and clear license terms for using and improving of both off-line and online AviSynth documentation.

We believe that the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ CreativeCommons Attribution-ShareAlike License] is a good free license which formalizes the customs in the past. This is why we decided to license the documentation under this license.


== AviSynth Copyright and License ==

AviSynth is free software under the GNU General Public License version 2.0 (GPLv2). (c) Copyright 2000-{{CURRENTYEAR}} Ben Rudiak-Gould and all subsequent developers.

AviSynth's license text is in [http://avisynth2.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/avisynth2/avisynth/src/core/avisynth.h?content-type=text%2Fplain the source code] (avisynth.h) and the [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html GNU GPL 2.0].


== AviSynth Filter SDK Copyright and License ==
 
AviSynth Filter SDK is under [[Filter_SDK/SDK_license| special license]] since the release of AviSynth v2.5.7 (GNU GPL with exceptions).

Any contribution to Filter SDK must be under a GNU GPL-compatible license for source code and under a "CreativeCommons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License" - compatible license for text.


== AviSynth Documentation Copyright ==

AviSynth documentation is copyright (c) 2002-{{CURRENTYEAR}} AviSynth developers and contributors.

Starting from 5 August 2007 the following documentation is released under the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ CreativeCommons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License] (abbreviated by "CC BY-SA 3.0", see also [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode full license terms]):

* All content of the AviSynth Wiki at avisynth.org and avisynth.nl, except the AviSynth Filter SDK.

* The off-line documentation which is distributed with AviSynth itself, except any external plugin documentation which is copyright corresponding authors (see description of these plugins for their license terms).

When editing this Wiki or using material from this Wiki or off-line documentation you are bound by the terms of this license, and these terms are briefly as follows:

*You are allowed to copy, modify or improve the content of the AviSynth Wiki and the off-line documentation provided that:

:* Share Alike (SA): The resulting changes are licensed under the same or a compatible license as the AviSynth Wiki and the off-line documentation (which is "CC BY-SA 3.0"). 

:* Attribution (BY): Permit users to copy, distribute, display and perform the work and make derivative works based upon it only if they give the author or licensor the credits in the manner specified by these. This implies that if you distribute parts of the documentation (such as articles or scripts) your should refer to "AviSynth documentation Wiki" (or "AviSynth documentation") with link to these pages or to the main site: avisynth.org or avisynth.nl. You must also keep attributions for the parts attributed to other resources or authors.

*Besides above two requirements, you also agree that:

:* attribution of your contributions will (or may) be given to AviSynth project in a form "AviSynth documentation" or "AviSynth documentation Wiki" (avisynth.org or avisynth.nl).

:* your contribution (and main Wiki content) may be re-licensed by the AviSynth developers team under a compatible license.

:* you are also promising us that you wrote the contributions yourself, or copied it from public domain, or from work with a compatible license. DO NOT SUBMIT COPYRIGHTED WORK WITHOUT PERMISSION!

Note that this license has a fair-use clause (article 2):
<blockquote>
''"2. Fair Dealing Rights. Nothing in this License is intended to reduce, limit, or restrict any uses free from copyright or rights arising from limitations or exceptions that are provided for in connection with the copyright protection under copyright law or other applicable laws."''
</blockquote>
which, in our opinion, explicitly permits you to ''post and discuss'' scripts (from the documentation) where ever you want without the need to mention its license or its authors, but it is civil to credit the developers and script authors. Of course, you may not declare yourself as its author or distribute the documentation under an uncompatible license.


== Documentation in Other Languages ==
AviSynth documentation translations to other languages (both at the wiki and off-line) should be under the same or compatible license terms. Relicensing of existing translations is in progress.


== AviSynth Logo ==
[http://avisynth.nl/images/avisynth-logo-gears-mod.png Film and Gears] logo was contributed to AviSynth project by doom9 forum member 'Shayne'.

[http://avisynth.nl/images/Avisynth-logo-tray.png Tray and AviSynth] logo (now at old wiki pages) was contributed  to AviSynth project by anonymous sh0dan's friend.

Permission to use and/or modify these logos is granted provided that your materials are related to AviSynth and you give an attribution to avisynth.org or avisynth.nl.
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