WTFPL - Do What The Fuck You Want To Public LicenseWhen free means completely free!The Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License (WTFPL) is a free software license. There is a long ongoing battle between GPL zealots and BSD fanatics, about which license type is the most free of the two. In fact, both license types have unacceptable obnoxious clauses (such as reproducing a huge disclaimer that is written in all caps) that severely restrain our freedoms. The WTFPL can solve this problem. When analysing whether a license is free or not, you usually check that it allows free usage, modification and redistribution. Then you check that the additional restrictions do not impair fundamental freedoms. The WTFPL renders this task trivial: it allows everything and has no additional restrictions. How could life be easier? You just DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO. The license text DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE
You can download a plain text version. FAQIs the WTFPL a valid license? Although the validity of the WTFPL has not been tested in courts, it is widely accepted as a valid license. Every major Linux distribution (Debian, Red Hat, Gentoo, SuSE, Mandrake, etc.) ships software licensed under the WTFPL, version 1 or 2. Bradley Kuhn (executive director of the Free Software Foundation) was quoted saying that the FSF’s folks agree the WTFPL is a valid free software license. Why is there no “no warranty” clause? The WTFPL is an all-purpose license and does not cover only computer programs; it can be used for artwork, documentation and so on. As such, it only covers copying, distribution and modification. If you want to add a no warranty clause for a program, you may use the following wording in your source code:
/* This program is free software. It comes without any warranty, to
Isn’t this license basically public domain? There is no such thing as “putting a work in the public domain”, you America-centered, Commonwealth-biased individual. Public domain varies with the jurisdictions, and it is in some places debatable whether someone who has not been dead for the last seventy years is entitled to put his own work in the public domain. Can’t you change the wording? It’s inappropriate / childish / not corporate-compliant. What the fuck is not clear in “DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO”? If you do not like the license terms, just relicense the work under another license. Who uses the WTFPL? The WTFPL on this website is version 2. Version 1 of the WTFPL was written by Banlu Kemiyatorn, who used it for some WindowMaker artwork. Freshmeat has a WTFPL license category. By the way, with the WTFPL, can I also… Oh but yes, of course you can. But can I… Yes you can. Can… Yes! |