The Python License is a deprecated permissive computer software license created by the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI). It was used for versions 1.6 and 2.0 of the Python programming language, both released in the year 2000. The Python License is similar to the BSD License and, while it is a free software license, its wording in some versions meant that it was incompatible with the GNU General Public License (GPL) used by a great deal of free software including the

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ope ...

. For this reason CNRI retired the license in 2001, and the license of current releases is the Python Software Foundation License.

Origin

Python was created by Guido van Rossum and the initial copyright was held by his employer, the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI). During this time Python was distributed under a GPL-compatible variant of the

Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer The Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer (HPND) is an open source license, approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) and verified as GPL-compatible by the Free Software Foundation. It is unique among the OSI's licenses because of the choi ...

license. CNRI obtained ownership of Python when Van Rossum became employed there, and after some years they drafted a new license for the language.

Retirement

The Python License includes a clause stating that the license is governed by the State of

Virginia, United States Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

. The Python Software Foundation License; Python 1.6.1 differs from Python 1.6 only in some minor bug fixes and new GPL-compatible licensing terms.

References

{{FOSS Python (programming language) Free and open-source software licenses Permissive software licenses