Aladdin Free Public License

The Aladdin Free Public License, abbreviated AFPL, is a license written by L. Peter Deutsch for his Ghostscript PostScript language interpreter.

Not to be confused with the AGPL (GNU Affero General Public License) used for later versions of Ghostscript.

Aladdin Free Public License
Latest version9
PublisherAladdin Enterprises
PublishedSeptember 18, 2000 (2000-09-18)
SPDX identifierAladdin
Debian FSG compatibleNo
FSF approvedNo[1]
OSI approvedNo
GPL compatibleNo

History

The license was derived from the GNU General Public License, but differs on two key points:

  • The source code must be included with any software distribution.
  • The software may not be sold, including any fees involved with distribution.

Deutsch chose to include a commercial restriction in the AFPL based on his observation of people including Ghostscript in commercial products without full license compliance.[2] Recent versions of Ghostscript are not licensed under the AFPL.[3]

Despite the name, the Free Software Foundation does not consider the AFPL a free software license,[1] neither the OSI consider it an open-source license, nor does it fall under the Copyfree Standard definition.[4] The AFPL can be considered a source-available license.

See also

References
  1. "Licenses - Free Software Foundation". Archived from the original on January 13, 2009. Retrieved January 5, 2009.
  2. Stig Hackvän (October 1998). "L. Peter Deutsch in conversation with Stig Hackvän". Dr Dobb's Journal. CMP Media LLC. Archived from the original (CD-ROM) on October 13, 2004. Retrieved July 21, 2007. As you recall, I promised Stallman that I would continue to distribute Ghostscript with the GNU license. But I saw a number of companies bundling Ghostscript with commercial products while just barely complying with the letter of the GNU license, so I decided that I did not want to make Ghostscript as available for commercial distribution as it would be with the GNU license.
  3. "Ghostscript, Ghostview and GSview". Archived from the original on June 30, 2007. Retrieved July 21, 2007.
  4. Copyfree Standard Definition


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