X-Git-Url: https://wimlib.net/git/?p=wimlib;a=blobdiff_plain;f=COPYING;h=c26af332a990696e75a452abbd43f278ccdcc503;hp=eb329f62315e32c4b2657b06de3eab043baa414d;hb=90995e401c0b80fdf65c1b3564ca6ee1180bc4ea;hpb=d589ed95c6e04fb13514408e426c986c6f53c356

diff --git a/COPYING b/COPYING
index eb329f62..c26af332 100644
--- a/COPYING
+++ b/COPYING
@@ -1,16 +1,28 @@
-Unless otherwise specified, wimlib and all programs and scripts distributed with
-it may be redistributed and/or modified under the terms of the GNU General
-Public License; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later
-version.  See COPYING.GPLv3.
+Unless otherwise specified, wimlib and its associated programs, scripts,
+documentation, and other files may be redistributed and/or modified under the
+terms of the GNU General Public License; either version 3 of the License, or (at
+your option) any later version.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted
+by law.  See the file COPYING.GPLv3 for more details.
 
-However, the following exception is granted.  When not prohibited by conflict
-with a third-party software license, you may opt to redistribute and/or modify
-the library portion of wimlib under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
-License; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
-See COPYING.LGPLv3.
+Alternatively, when not prohibited by conflict with a third-party software
+license, the library portion of wimlib may be redistributed and/or modified
+under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License; either version 3 of
+the License, or (at your option) any later version.  There is NO WARRANTY, to
+the extent permitted by law.  See the file COPYING.LGPLv3 for more details.
 
-The following paragraph is informational only.  The above exception is known to
-be relevant for the third-party library "libntfs-3g", which is licensed GPLv2+.
-On UNIX-like systems, wimlib can optionally be compiled with libntfs-3g support.
+----------------------------------------
+
+NOTE! The primary reason for the GPL/LGPL "dual licensing" for the library is
+that on UNIX-like systems, wimlib can optionally be linked to the third-party
+library "libntfs-3g", which is licensed GPLv2+.  Under some interpretations of
+the GPL, this would require that wimlib be licensed under the GPL as well.
 However, a binary copy of wimlib that was compiled without libntfs-3g support
-need not be affected by the libntfs-3g license (for example).
+(for example; the exception may be applicable in other situations as well)
+logically cannot be affected by libntfs-3g's license and should therefore be
+free to be redistributed under the LGPL instead of the GPL.
+
+NOTE! The file COPYING.CC0 contains a public domain dedication.  This public
+domain dedication does not apply to wimlib as a whole, but rather to individual
+source code files which the author(s) have elected to place into the public
+domain, as noted in the corresponding file headers.  As usual, such code carries
+NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.  See COPYING.CC0 for more details.