The new BSD Licence is written in poetic style

In an effort to make licence more readable BSD licence is re-written in poetic style.

According to gerv.net

This is an effort to make licence documents more readable and interesting by turning them into verse. (Note that there is no document called the "Poetic Licence"; if I ever do more than one of these, that will be an umbrella term.) The original is OSI-approved, but the verse version certainly is not, and so should not be used for software. To make sure that does not become the case, I retain all copyright rights for now.


Here is the original version of BSD Licence


Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

• Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
• 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.
• Neither the name of the nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

 

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "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 COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS 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. 

 

 

And here is the poetic version

 

 

You may redistribute and use - as source or binary, as you choose, and with some changes or without - this software; let there be no doubt. But you must meet conditions three, if in compliance you wish to be.
 

The first is obvious, of course - To keep this text within the source. The second is for binaries Place in the docs a copy, please. A moral lesson from this ode - Don't strip the copyright on code. 

 

 

The third applies when you promote: You must not take, from us who wrote, our names and make it seem as true we like or love your version too. (Unless, of course, you contact us And get our written assensus.)
 

 One final point to be laid out (You must forgive my need to shout): THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THIS WHATEVER THING MAY GO AMISS. EXPRESS, IMPLIED, IT'S ALL THE SAME - RESPONSIBILITY DISCLAIMED. 

 

WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR LOSS NO MATTER HOW INCURRED THE COST THE TYPE OR STYLE OF DAMAGE DONE OR CLEVER LEGAL THEORY SPUN. THIS EVEN STAYS THE CASE IF YOU INFORM US WHAT YOU PLAN TO DO. 

 

When all is told, we sum up thus - Do what you like, just don't sue us.

 

Copyright (c) 2010, Gervase Markham 
All rights reserved. 

This seems a very good approach to make boring Licence a lot more interesting to end users. Hope someone translates the Linux GPL licence too.