Scitools licensing guide

documents/scitools_licensing.md

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+# SciTools Projects
+
+## Licensing
+
+All projects under the SciTools[-incubator] GitHub organisations are to be
+developed in the open (i.e. via small pull requests which are open to
+public review) and released under an OSI (Open Source Initiative) approved
+license.
+
+
+## Copyright
+
+All SciTools projects operate a shared ownership model as specified
+in the [SciTools CLA](https://scitools.org.uk/cla/v4).
+The copyright statement is:
+
+```
+Copyright <start year>(-<end year>) <project> contributors
+```
+
+For example:
+
+```
+Copyright 2010-2018 Iris contributors
+```
+
+
+## Source preamble
+
+All non-trivial source files in a SciTools repository must reference the
+license of the repository. The wording of the preamble should be:
+
+```
+# Copyright <project> contributors
+#
+# This file is part of <project> and is released under the <OSI license> license.
+# See LICENSE in the root of the repository for full licensing details.
+```
+
+**Note:** start and end dates are *not* required in the source preamble
+
+
+## Default license
+
+The default license for all SciTools projects is the BSD 3-clause license. 
+The full text of a BSD 3-clause LICENSE file should be:
+
+```
+BSD 3-Clause License
+
+Copyright <YEAR_START>-<YEAR_END> <project> contributors
+
+See "Credits, copyright and license" in README.<ext> for full credits
+<(if appropriate) and any exceptions to the following terms>.
+
+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 copyright holder 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.
+```
+
+
+In the situation where vendored / third-party tools have been packaged
+into the repository, full terms should be documented in the License section of
+the README.
+As always, due care with licensing *MUST* be taken when vendoring in this way.
+
+
+## Readme credits and license section
+
+All repositories should include a "Credits, copyright and License"
+section in the README.[md|rst|txt].
+
+The Credits section should be used to document significant institutional
+development of the project and to provide a link
+pointing to the GitHub contributors list.
+
+The Copyright and License section should re-iterate the copyright found
+in the LICENSE file.
+
+For example, Iris's README.md may include the following:
+
+```
+
+## Credits, copyright and license
+
+Iris is developed collaboratively under the SciTools umberella.
+
+A full list of code contributors ("Iris contributors") can be found at
+https://github.com/SciTools/iris/graphs/contributors.
+
+Code is just one of many ways of positively contributing to Iris, please see
+our [contributing guide](.github/CONTRIBUTING.md) for more details on how
+you can get involved.
+
+Iris is released under a LGPL license with a shared copyright model.
+See [LICENSE](LICENSE) for full terms.
+
+The [Met Office](https://metoffice.gov.uk) has made a significant
+contribution to the development, maintenance and support of this library.
+All Met Office contributions are copyright on behalf of the British Crown.
+
+```
+