2 files changed, 79 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/doc/licensing.html b/doc/licensing.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..93a50930
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/licensing.html
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<html><head>
+<title>rsyslog licensing</title>
+
+</head>
+<body>
+<h1>rsyslog licensing</h1>
+<p><b>Most important things first: if you intend to use rsyslog inside a GPLv3 compatible project, you are free to do so.</b> You don't even need to continue reading. 
+If you intend to use rsyslog inside a non-GPLv3 
+compatible project, rsyslog offers you some liberties to do that, too. However, you then need
+to study the licensing details in depth.
+<p>The project hopes this is a good compromise, which also gives a boost to fellow free 
+software developers who release under GPLv3.
+<p>And now on to the dirty and boring license details, still on a executive summary level. For the
+real details, check source files and the files COPYING and COPYING.LESSER inside the distribution.
+<p>The rsyslog package contains several components:
+<ul>
+<li>the rsyslog core programs (like rsyslogd)
+<li>plugins (like imklog, omrelp, ...)
+<li>the rsyslog runtime library
+</ul>
+<p>Each of these components can be thought of as individual projects. In fact, some of the
+plugins have different main authors than the rest of the rsyslog package. All of these
+components are currently put together into a single "rsyslog" package (tarball) for
+convinience: this makes it easier to distribute a consistent version where everything
+is included (and in the right versions) to build a full system. Platform package 
+maintainers in general take the overall package and split off the individual components, so that
+users can install only what they need. In source installations, this can be done via the
+proper ./configure switches.
+<p>However, while it is convenient to package all parts in a single tarball, it does not
+imply all of them are necessarily covered by the same license. Traditionally, GPL licenses
+are used for rsyslog, because the project would like to provide free software. GPLv3 has been
+used since around 2008 to help fight for our freedom. All rsyslog core programs are
+released under GPLv3. But, from the beginning on, plugins were separate projects and we did not
+impose and license restrictions on them. So even though all plugins that currently ship with
+the rsyslog package are also placed under GPLv3, this can not taken for granted. You need
+to check each plugins license terms if in question - this is especially important for
+plugins that do NOT ship as part of the rsyslog tarball.
+<p>In order to make rsyslog technology available to a broader range of applications, 
+the rsyslog runtime is, at least partly, licensed under LGPL. If in doubt, check the source file
+licensing comments. As of now, the following files are licensed under LGPL:
+<ul>
+<li>queue.c/.h
+<li>wti.c/.h
+<li>wtp.c/.h
+<li>vm.c/.h
+<li>vmop.c/.h
+<li>vmprg.c/.h
+<li>vmstk.c/.h
+<li>expr.c/.h
+<li>sysvar.c/.h
+<li>ctok.c/.h
+<li>ctok_token.c/.h
+<li>regexp.c/.h
+<li>sync.c/.h
+<li>stream.c/.h
+<li>var.c/.h
+</ul>
+This list will change as time of the runtime modularization. At some point in the future, there will
+be a well-designed set of files inside a runtime library branch and all of these will be LGPL. Some
+select extras will probably still be covered by GPL. We are following a similar licensing
+model in GnuTLS, which makes effort to reserve some functionality exclusively to open source
+projects.
+<p>[<a href="manual.html">manual index</a>] [<a href="http://www.rsyslog.com/">rsyslog site</a>]</p>
+<p><font size="2">This documentation is part of the
+<a href="http://www.rsyslog.com/">rsyslog</a>
+project.<br>
+Copyright &copy; 2008 by <a href="http://www.gerhards.net/rainer">Rainer
+Gerhards</a> and
+<a href="http://www.adiscon.com/">Adiscon</a>. Last Update: 2008-04-15.
+Released under the GNU GPL version 3 or higher.</font></p>
+</body></html>
diff --git a/doc/manual.html b/doc/manual.html
index 8bdee8b7..9c49cbee 100644
--- a/doc/manual.html
+++ b/doc/manual.html
@@ -65,8 +65,7 @@ the syslog priority (severity and facility) to the log file</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.rsyslog.com/Article19.phtml">preserving
 syslog sender over NAT</a> (online only)</li><li><a href="gssapi.html">an overview and howto of rsyslog gssapi support</a></li>
 <li><a href="debug.html">debug support in rsyslog</a></li>
-<li><a href="dev_queue.html">the rsyslog message
-queue object</a></li>
+<li><a href="dev_queue.html">the rsyslog message queue object</a></li>
 </ul>
 <p>Our <a href="history.html">rsyslog history</a>
 page is for you if you would like to learn a little more
@@ -98,5 +97,9 @@ mailing list</a>. If you are interested in the "backstage", you
 may find
 <a href="http://www.gerhards.net/rainer">Rainer</a>'s
 <a href="http://rgerhards.blogspot.com/">blog</a> an
-interesting read (filter on syslog and rsyslog tags).</p>
-</body></html>
-\ No newline at end of file
+interesting read (filter on syslog and rsyslog tags).
+If you would like to use rsyslog source code inside your open source project, you can do that without
+any restriction as long as your license is GPLv3 compatible. If your license is incompatible to GPLv3,
+you may even be still permitted to use rsyslog source code. However, then you need to look at the way
+<a href="licensing.html">rsyslog is licensed</a>.</p>
+</body></html>