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The zlib license predates 3-clause BSD (zlib was released under the zlib license in 1995, BSD started releasing code under 3-clause BSD in 1999). I will admit
by cyphar 8y ago
The zlib license predates 3-clause BSD (zlib was released under the zlib license in 1995, BSD started releasing code under 3-clause BSD in 1999).
I will admit that when I first saw the zlib license, I was similarly confused but it's actually a license that is about the same age as most other common licenses (and quite a large body of software is licensed under it).
- loeg 8y agoThe 3-clause BSDL is just the 4-clause with clause #3 removed. Per Wikipedia, the 4-clause dates to 1990: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_licenses#4-clause_license_(original_%22BSD_License%22) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_licenses#4-clause_license_... . (I.e., all of the text in the 3-clause BSD license was written in 1990.)
- cyphar 8y agoNo software was licensed under the 3-clause BSD license (because it didn't exist) until 1999. Just because the text is similar to an earlier license doesn't change that software licensed under zlib precedes software licensed under 3-clause BSD. But that's not really the point -- GGGP implied that the license was written from scratch ("yet-another-open-source-license") and that's obviously not true.