BRL-CAD Copying and Distribution
================================

BRL-CAD is Open Source software with copyright primarily held by the
U.S. Government.  The source code is controlled and maintained by a
core team of Open Source developers working around the world.  Those
core developers operate under a meritocracy organizational structure
adhering to developer guidelines outlined in the HACKING developer's
guide and to the legal conventions and requirements outlined in this
document.

As a unified work, BRL-CAD is made available under the terms of the
GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) as published by the Free
Software Foundation.

As distinctly organized and separate components, parts of BRL-CAD are
made available under different licenses for different portions
including the BSD license and files in the public domain. The Overview
section describes how the various licenses apply to the different
portions of BRL-CAD.

BRL-CAD is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser General Public
License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
License along with this file.  If you did not, please contact one of
the BRL-CAD project administrators listed at the Github project
site https://github.com/BRL-CAD/brlcad/ or listed in the AUTHORS file
included as part of the distribution.

Overview
--------

BRL-CAD consists primarily of libraries, applications, scripts,
documentation, geometric models, images, data resources, and build
infrastructure.  The BRL-CAD libraries provide their headers in the
include/ directory as well as all of the directories that begin with
the prefix "lib" in the src/ directory (e.g. src/librt/).  All of
BRL-CAD's libraries, applications, and any content lacking a license
specification are covered by the terms of the LGPL.

Most of BRL-CAD's build infrastructure including files required by
the GNU Build System (such as the CMakeLists.txt files), a variety
of scripts located in the misc/ and sh/ directories, and the testing
infrastructure (scripts and resources) are provided either under
the BSD license or are in the public domain.  Similarly, most of
the geometric models, images, and other data resources are also
provided under the BSD license.  Refer to each individual file for
specific terms.

BRL-CAD's documentation consists of manual pages located throughout
the package, most of the files in the doc/ directory, and the
top-level administrative project text files (e.g. README & AUTHORS).
Unless otherwise denoted, all of BRL-CAD's documentation is made
available under the terms of the BSD Documentation License (BDL) or
are in the public domain.  Refer to each document for specific terms.

The full text of the LGPL, BDL, and BSD license should be included in
the source distribution of BRL-CAD in the doc/legal/ directory.  Refer
to the full license text for more details, information, requirements,
and implications of each license.

3rd-Party Components
--------------------

The BRL-CAD package utilizes and redistributes several 3rd party
source codes, libraries, and applications.  Said 3rd party source
code, libraries, and applications all retain their respective
agreements, licenses, and copyrights and should be referred to
individually for their specific terms.  For the purposes of
redistribution and legal compatibility for all of BRL-CAD's existing
user base, NO 3RD PARTY LIBRARIES SHALL BE INCLUDED THAT ARE UNDER THE
TERMS OF THE GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE or any other license with
similar legal implications that would impose legal obligations on
external codes that utilize BRL-CAD as a library.

When referring to BRL-CAD, its source code, documentation, and
libraries, the reference is not meant to include or imply 3rd party
source code, libraries, and/or applications unless specifically stated
otherwise.  No endorsement or claim of authorship is implied to any
3rd party asset that is included with BRL-CAD.  The majority of the
3rd party source code, libraries, and applications included with
BRL-CAD are located in the src/other/ directory of the source code
distribution.

Copyright
---------

All contributions to BRL-CAD have been provided under agreement.  By
requiring all contributions be given back to the BRL-CAD developers,
this agreement allows the BRL-CAD project to continue to grow
unhindered.  As such, a majority of the source code is copyright by
the United States Government as represented by the United States Army
Research Laboratory.

Authors and other BRL-CAD contributors must comply with the copyright
terms for their respective contributions unless otherwise noted or
arranged.  This includes an implicit assignment of copyright for any
and all contributions being made.  The following notice should be
prominent in the BRL-CAD sources:

  Copyright (c) 1984-2023 United States Government as represented by
  the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

Contact
-------

Questions or comments regarding BRL-CAD legal issues pertaining to
copying, linking, licensing, trademark, or otherwise should be
directed to the BRL-CAD Development Team at the following address:

BRL-CAD Development Team
devs@brlcad.org
http://brlcad.org

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