A Note About Licenses

Software licenses are both the curse and the foundation of the open source movement. Every software project needs to make careful, deliberate decisions about what kind of license should be used for the code�who is allowed to use the code, under what conditions, and so on. Given the nature of the cookbook, we wanted the recipes to be usable under any circumstances where Python could be used. In other words, we wanted to ensure completely unfettered use, in the same spirit as the Python license. Unfortunately, the Python license cannot really be used to refer to anything other than Python itself. As a compromise, we chose to use the modified Berkeley license, which is considered among the most liberal of licenses. We contacted each of the recipe authors and confirmed that they agreed to publish these recipes under said license. The license template reads (substitute <OWNER> and <ORGANIZATION> with the author of each recipe):

Copyright (c) 2001, <OWNER>
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 
are met:
   * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 
     notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 
   * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
     copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
     disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided
     with the distribution. 
   * Neither the name of the <ORGANIZATION> nor the names of its 
     contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived 
     from this software without specific prior written permission. 
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
"AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS
OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS;
OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR
OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF
ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.