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<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">Licenses</a><ul>

<li><a class="reference internal" href="#why-bsd-compatible">Why BSD compatible?</a></li>

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<div class="section" id="licenses">

<span id="license-discussion"></span><h1>Licenses<a class="headerlink" href="#licenses" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>

<p>Matplotlib only uses BSD compatible code. If you bring in code from

another project make sure it has a PSF, BSD, MIT or compatible license

(see the Open Source Initiative <a class="reference external" href="https://opensource.org/licenses">licenses page</a> for details on individual

licenses). If it doesn't, you may consider contacting the author and

asking them to relicense it. GPL and LGPL code are not acceptable in

the main code base, though we are considering an alternative way of

distributing L/GPL code through an separate channel, possibly a

toolkit. If you include code, make sure you include a copy of that

code's license in the license directory if the code's license requires

you to distribute the license with it. Non-BSD compatible licenses

are acceptable in Matplotlib toolkits (e.g., basemap), but make sure you

clearly state the licenses you are using.</p>

<div class="section" id="why-bsd-compatible">

<h2>Why BSD compatible?<a class="headerlink" href="#why-bsd-compatible" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>

<p>The two dominant license variants in the wild are GPL-style and

BSD-style. There are countless other licenses that place specific

restrictions on code reuse, but there is an important difference to be

considered in the GPL and BSD variants. The best known and perhaps

most widely used license is the GPL, which in addition to granting you

full rights to the source code including redistribution, carries with

it an extra obligation. If you use GPL code in your own code, or link

with it, your product must be released under a GPL compatible

license. i.e., you are required to give the source code to other

people and give them the right to redistribute it as well. Many of the

most famous and widely used open source projects are released under

the GPL, including linux, gcc, emacs and sage.</p>

<p>The second major class are the BSD-style licenses (which includes MIT

and the python PSF license). These basically allow you to do whatever

you want with the code: ignore it, include it in your own open source

project, include it in your proprietary product, sell it,

whatever. python itself is released under a BSD compatible license, in

the sense that, quoting from the PSF license page:</p>

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">There</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="n">no</span> <span class="n">GPL</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">like</span> <span class="s2">&quot;copyleft&quot;</span> <span class="n">restriction</span><span class="o">.</span> <span class="n">Distributing</span>

<span class="n">binary</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">only</span> <span class="n">versions</span> <span class="n">of</span> <span class="n">Python</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">modified</span> <span class="ow">or</span> <span class="ow">not</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="ow">is</span> <span class="n">allowed</span><span class="o">.</span> <span class="n">There</span>

<span class="ow">is</span> <span class="n">no</span> <span class="n">requirement</span> <span class="n">to</span> <span class="n">release</span> <span class="nb">any</span> <span class="n">of</span> <span class="n">your</span> <span class="n">source</span> <span class="n">code</span><span class="o">.</span> <span class="n">You</span> <span class="n">can</span> <span class="n">also</span>

<span class="n">write</span> <span class="n">extension</span> <span class="n">modules</span> <span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">Python</span> <span class="ow">and</span> <span class="n">provide</span> <span class="n">them</span> <span class="n">only</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">binary</span>

<span class="n">form</span><span class="o">.</span>

<p>Famous projects released under a BSD-style license in the permissive

sense of the last paragraph are the BSD operating system, python and

TeX.</p>

<p>There are several reasons why early Matplotlib developers selected a

BSD compatible license. Matplotlib is a python extension, and we

choose a license that was based on the python license (BSD

compatible). Also, we wanted to attract as many users and developers

as possible, and many software companies will not use GPL code in

software they plan to distribute, even those that are highly committed

to open source development, such as <a class="reference external" href="https://www.enthought.com">enthought</a>, out of legitimate concern that use of the

GPL will &quot;infect&quot; their code base by its viral nature. In effect, they

want to retain the right to release some proprietary code. Companies

and institutions who use Matplotlib often make significant

contributions, because they have the resources to get a job done, even

a boring one. Two of the Matplotlib backends (FLTK and WX) were

contributed by private companies. The final reason behind the

licensing choice is compatibility with the other python extensions for

scientific computing: ipython, numpy, scipy, the enthought tool suite

and python itself are all distributed under BSD compatible licenses.</p>

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