Artistic License
The
Artistic License is a software
license used for certain
free software packages, most notably the standard
Perl implementation, most of
CPAN modules and
Parrot, which are
dual-licensed under the Artistic License and the
GNU General Public License (GPL). It was written by
Larry Wall.
Whether or not the original Artistic License is a
free software license is largely undecided. It is often heavily criticised for being ambiguous, self-contradictory, and thus virtually impossible to interpret - perfectly representing the fields of
Art and
copyright law. The
Free Software Foundation has gone so far to say that it is
not a free software license, however, this has never been a contentious issue since all notable software that uses the original Artistic License are
dual licensed along with the GPL.
There exists an
Artistic License 2.0, which was written in response to a Perl community
request for comments, which everyone agrees is a free software license. The license was written by
Bradley Kuhn, then working for Free Software Foundation, and seems to be scheduled for adoption by the standard Perl implementation when version 6 is released. There also exists a "Clarified Artistic License", which is also a free software license, currently being used by the
SNEeSe and
FakeNES emulators.
The name of the licence is a reference to the concept of
artistic licence.
*
The Artistic License (the original Artistic License, the one which is still used by Perl and CPAN)
*
The Artistic License 2.0*
The Clarified Artistic License
