The (Cooperative) Non-Violent Public License - Official Page

To clarify: These Licenses are intended not only for Software, but also for creative works of all kinds.

The git for the NPL license is available here. The git for the CNPL license is available here. For either version, report issues which apply to both on the NPL git, and otherwise please add issues for future license revisions to the respective repository's issue tracker.

IMPORTANT:

To ensure your project is able to apply fixes from newer versions of the NPL or CNPL please add a "+" at the end of the license abbreviation, like either of these: NPLv4+ CNPLv4+. You can also specify that you only want your work available under certain versions like so: NPLv0,1 CNPLv0,1 (to make your work available under either version 0 or 1 of the License). It is highly recommended to keep up to date, but short of that, please only use versions 4 and above (for both).

Brief License Summary (For Lay-People)

The Non-Violent Public License aims to ensure basic protections against forms of violence, coercion, and discrimination which creations are frequently leveraged for in the modern world. This license covers several formats of creative work but has extra terms for software given the power it has as a tool outside of its creative capacities.

The Cooperative Non-Violent Public License goes further and only allows commercial use of the copyrighted work for individuals and worker-owned organizations. It is a superset of the NPL and contains all of the same terms otherwise.

The rights granted on the copyrighted work are as follows:

Right to modify the Work.

Right to copy and share the Work.

Right to publish modified versions of the Work.

Right for anyone to use the Work. (As long as restrictions are met)

The restrictions on the copyrighted work are as follows:

The work in original or modified form cannot be used for patent claims.

Any published changes made to the work (modifications) must be made available under the original license. In the case of software, making "server-side" access to modified versions qualifies as publishing a modified version. (think AGPL)

Ethical Restrictions on usage

No use for the purpose of inflicting bodily harm.

No use for the purpose of surveilling individuals for financial gain.

No use for the purpose of War. (aiding or undertaking directly)

No use for the purpose of Incarceration.

No use for the purpose of extracting oil, gas, or coal.

No use for the purpose of facilitating child labor.

No use for the purpose of discrimination or hate speech towards disadvantaged groups on the basis of... Sex Sexual Orientation Gender Identity Race Age Disability Color National Origin Religion Lower Economic Status



Extra Restriction in the CNPL

(Subject to any restrictions)

You cannot sell the licensed work as a "traditional company" (anything other than a non-worker-owned cooperative, so hierarchical cooperatives do not count). You can only commercially redistribute licensed works as an individual or as a worker-owned cooperative.

A Note to those concerned about "Free Software"

The Non-Violent Public License intentionally does not meet the Free Software Definition because of the restrictions put in place to protect others from violence aided by the use of the copyrighted work. "Freedom 0" is explicitly violated to afford these protections and prevent unethical usage of the program to actually Free Society.This license does preserve freedoms 1-3 and can be referred to as a "three freedoms" license. Similarly to the GNU AGPL this license has the additional requirement that server-side source code modifications to public-facing server software must be published for users as well as the usual expectations for FLOSS software with the exception of restrictions on Freedom 0 for ethical purposes.

With this in mind, can licenses which do not leverage ethical restrictions on "freedom" 0 really be said to "Free Society" as Stallman claims when they allow for the running of concentration camps and surveillance states? I leave it for you to decide.