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I would like to take a small stand-alone part of an open-source Python project (one class from a relatively big project), enhance it, and release it as separate project on PyPI so that I can use it independently. I will fully credit the project where the code is taken from originally. Below is the full license of the original project. As far as I can tell it does not use one of a standard open-source licenses such as MIT. As pointed out in comments, this is 3-Clause BSD license.

Copyright (C) {years} {author name}
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

  1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
  2. 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.
  3. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``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 AUTHOR 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.

My question is if Im legally allowed to do that. And if yes, under what license would I be able to release it under?

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  • just saw meta.stackexchange.com/questions/165980/… and wondering if this is correct site to ask this question. I see some similar licensing questions here so will leave here for now
    – miki725
    Mar 23, 2017 at 15:22
  • The quoted license looks very MIT like. What's different?
    – whatsisname
    Mar 23, 2017 at 16:38
  • The 3 restrictions seem different. hence Im not sure if Im allowed to fork and release part of it separately
    – miki725
    Mar 23, 2017 at 16:42
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    "As far as I can tell it does not use one of a standard open-source licenses" – In what way is this different from the 3-clause BSD license?
    – Jörg W Mittag
    Mar 23, 2017 at 17:19
  • its not! thanks @JörgWMittag. never seen it before. thanks for pointing that out.
    – miki725
    Mar 23, 2017 at 19:29

1 Answer 1

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Thanks to the comments, it was clarified that original license is 3-Clause BSD license.

Open-source SE site contains answers related to that license and my question. https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/4704/we-worked-with-bsd-license-software-and-modified-it-and-now-want-to-allow-others/4705#4705 and https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/4546/bsd-3-clause-how-to-update-with-modifications.

It seems that changes could be distributed as long as original copyright notice is preserved.

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