Beerware
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Beerware is a term that originally referred to a software license which provided an end user with the right to use a particular program (or obtain the source code) in exchange for providing some money to the authors so that they could buy beer.
It was invented by John Bristor in Pensacola, Fl on April 25, 1987. The first software distributed using the Beerware licensing model was uploaded to a number of BBS's (including dCenter of the Universe, The Boss, Executive Network, and PCExec) in 1987 and 1988.
Since that time many variations on the beerware model have been created, some of which ask the user to consume a beer rather than requiring the sending of beer money (or beer itself in some forms).
Poul Henning Kamp (http://people.freebsd.org/~phk/) created an open source license which he also called beerware. It states that the software or source code released under that license is free for the user to do anything he likes with and if he likes it he is allowed to buy the author a beer. This license was created to be small in size and because he felt that the GPL was a joke.
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| This article is part of the series: forms of software distribution |
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Adware | Beerware | Careware | Crippleware | Donateware | Free software | Freeware | Hostageware | Nagware | Open source | Postcardware | Shareware | Shovelware | Vaporware | |
