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<!-- $Id$ --><book><bookinfo><productname>eXist-db – Open Source Native XML Database</productname><title>Legal Statement</title><date>January 2012</date></bookinfo><chapter><title>Legal Statement</title><section id="legal-introduction"><title>Introduction</title><para>eXist-db is an open source software product that is published under the L-GPL Open Source license. A
                trademark has been registered for the name and the logo.</para></section><section id="legal-opensource"><title>Open Source</title><para>The source code of eXist-db is 'open', which means that essentially anyone has access to the full
                source code of the software. The source code is stored on a publicly accessible server so anyone can
                download it and learn from it. Because it is open everyone can use the work and can, in the spirit of
                Open Source community, contribute to the code by, for example, reviewing it, providing bug-fixes, or
                adding new features.</para><para>The software is developed with the intension to have it 'open' and keep it 'open' for anyone in the
                community of users. To guarantee this 'open-ness' there are some rules for using the code; these rules
                are defined in the L-GPL Open Source License.</para></section><section id="legal-license"><title>L-GPL license</title><para>eXist-db is released under the very liberal L-GPL license; in short this means that the software (as
                is) can be used without restrictions in any other software: Open Source software, propriety software,
                Commercial software, and non-Commercial software.</para><para>To guarantee the 'open' nature of eXist-db, the L-GPL license defines a few conditions for the cases
                where the original code is modified and (re-)distributed: The modified code must be released under the
                conditions as defined in the L-GPL license.</para><para>In the spirit of the open source community, it is encouraged to share any modified code the eXist-db
                community. The community and the author of the modified code will benefit from sharing the
                modifications, and the code will be maintained and reviewed by the eXist-db community.</para><para>Note that the L-GPL license only applies for the eXist-db code and distributed binaries, not for
                applications and plugins that are developed by eXist-db users.</para><para>The eXist-db code has dependencies on a number of carefully selected third-party libraries, libraries
                that are not developed as part of eXist-db. All of the libraries are released under an open source
                license, a copy of which is included in the eXist-db distribution. All of these licenses have been
                carefully checked and can be (legally) used together with eXist-db.</para><para>Some parts of the eXist-db code are published under even more liberal licenses. These licenses are
                also legally compatible with the eXist-db license.</para></section><section id="legal-trademark"><title>Trademark</title><para>The eXist-db name and logo have been registered as a trademark in order to keep both available for the
                eXist-db software and community. Please contact info_at_exist-db.org if you want to use the name and/or
                logo in your own works, e.g. as part of a software distribution or in a publication. A hi-res version of the
                logo is available on request.</para></section><section id="legal-references"><title>References</title><itemizedlist><listitem><para><ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/p/exist/code/">Source code</ulink> of eXist-db (a
                        subversion repository) </para></listitem><listitem><para>A 
                        <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software">Definition</ulink>  of open source
                            software.
                    </para></listitem><listitem><para>The orginal text of the 
                        <ulink url="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.txt">L-GPL license</ulink>.
                    </para></listitem><listitem><para>An 
                        <ulink url="http://www.tldrlegal.com/license/gnu-lesser-general-public-license-v2.1-(lgpl-2.1)">explanation</ulink> of the L-GPL license.
                    </para></listitem></itemizedlist></section></chapter></book>