# Novara Software Freedom License (NSFL)

**Development Notice (Living License).**  
This license is a *living document* under continuous development. There are **no fixed version numbers**. Updates and improvements are integrated over time as long as the community and the author (**Thomas / DiamantTh**) maintain it. Newer published texts supersede older ones without invalidating rights already granted under earlier texts; where wording differs, interpret in favor of user freedom, transparency, and fairness.

Copyright (C) 2025 Thomas (DiamantTh)

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## 0. Preamble and Purpose

Software should serve people. The Novara Software Freedom License (NSFL) protects the four classic freedoms — to **run**, **study**, **share**, and **modify** the program — while extending strong copyleft obligations to modern forms of software delivery, including **network and cloud services**. The NSFL also addresses behaviors that undermine the spirit of freedom: secret service components, artificial product segmentation, lock‑in pricing, DRM, and weaponization.

This is a concise but complete copyleft license. It is compatible with transparent commercial use, provided that recipients (including remote users) obtain the same technical freedoms that you enjoy. Where doubt remains, it shall be resolved in favor of user rights and public transparency.

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## 1. Definitions

In this License, the following terms have the meanings set forth below.

1.1 **“Program”** means any work licensed under this License, including source code, build scripts, interfaces, and documentation that the copyright holder designates as part of the Program.

1.2 **“You”** (or **“your”**) means an individual or entity exercising rights under this License.

1.3 **“Source Code”** means the preferred form of a work for making modifications, including build and packaging scripts, interface definitions, schema migrations, templates, configuration defaults, and test assets reasonably necessary to build and run the Program.

1.4 **“Corresponding Source”** means Source Code for all modules included in, linked with, or required by the Program to function as provided, excluding system libraries that (a) accompany the operating system or platform as standard components and (b) are not modified for use with the Program.

1.5 **“Object Code”** means any non‑source form of the Program, including compiled binaries, bytecode, minified assets, container images, and firmware.

1.6 **“Convey”** means any form of transfer, distribution, sublicensing, making available for download, or providing access via network or remote execution (including SaaS, hosted APIs, and embedded devices reachable over a network).

1.7 **“Public Use”** means making the Program available to third parties who are not your employees or household members, whether by distribution or network access, whether paid or free.

1.8 **“Deployment Information”** means the scripts, orchestration manifests, reproducible build instructions, and non‑secret configuration needed to deploy the Program in substantially the same way as offered to users.

1.9 **“Fair Price”** means total **production cost plus up to twenty‑five percent (25%) margin**; *production cost* includes reasonable developer salaries, hosting, bandwidth, and support, but excludes monopolistic rent, proprietary lock‑in, or license fees for keeping parts closed that this License requires to be open.

1.10 **“Blacklist”** means a publicly maintained list, curated by the author or community, of parties who systemically violate this License. Inclusion on a Blacklist immediately suspends rights under this License until removal (see §14).

1.11 **“Patent”** means any patent claim, including without limitation method, apparatus, and composition claims, that would be infringed by using, making, selling, offering to sell, importing, or otherwise exploiting the Program.

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## 2. Grant of Rights

Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, the copyright holder grants you a worldwide, royalty‑free, non‑exclusive, non‑transferable license to:

- **Run** the Program for any purpose.
- **Study and modify** the Program, and create derivative works.
- **Convey** the unmodified Program, or convey modified versions and derivative works, provided that you comply with the copyleft, transparency, and fairness obligations below.
- **Charge fees** for support, hosting, and services, provided that such use remains compliant with §6 (Fair Commercial Conduct) and §5/§4 (Network & Source transparency).

No trademark rights are granted. Use of names, marks, or logos remains governed by applicable trademark law.

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## 3. Copyleft: Conditions for Conveying the Program

3.1 **License continuity.** Any distribution or Public Use must be under this same License. You must include this License text and preserve relevant copyright and attribution notices.

3.2 **Source availability.** When you Convey Object Code or provide Public Use, you must provide **Corresponding Source** (as defined in §1.4) under this License, via a durable and publicly accessible network location, without additional charge other than nominal transfer fees.

3.3 **Installation information.** For devices that restrict installation (e.g., secure boot, locked bootloaders), you must provide the keys or installation methods necessary for users to install and run modified versions that are functionally equivalent to your deployment, unless such keys would disclose credentials to third‑party systems that are not reasonably separable.

3.4 **Notices.** Modified versions must carry prominent notices stating that changes were made and the date of change. You must not misrepresent modified versions as the original.

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## 4. Transparency Obligation (Time‑Bound Disclosure)

4.1 **Production use.** All modifications and configurations actually used in production or Public Use must be published as Corresponding Source within **45 days** of first use.

4.2 **Security exceptions.** Disclosure may be delayed for responsibly handled security issues, but not beyond **60 days** from first deployment or discovery, unless a fixed version has been made available to users; in that case, full disclosure must occur within **30 days** after releasing the fix.

4.3 **Release notes.** Any delay must be explained in public release notes indicating the issue class, affected versions, the time window, and the remediation status.

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## 5. Network and Service Use

5.1 **No service loophole.** Operating the Program as a service or API counts as Conveying. Remote users interacting with the Program are **recipients** for purposes of Source Code rights.

5.2 **Deployment information.** If you operate the Program as a service, you must provide **Deployment Information** sufficient for others to reproduce your deployed version, excluding secrets (e.g., passwords, private keys) and excluding infrastructure that is reasonably replaceable (e.g., commodity databases, message brokers) so long as compatible free alternatives exist.

5.3 **No artificial segmentation.** You may not split essential functionality into closed, “cloud‑only,” or obfuscated components for the purpose of circumventing copyleft. Any component without which your deployment would not provide substantially the same functionality is part of the Corresponding Source.

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## 6. Fair Commercial Conduct

6.1 **Permissible commerce.** You may charge for support, hosting, customization, integration, and related services.

6.2 **Fair Price guideline.** If you sell the Program or exclusive access to hosted features that are materially inseparable from the Program, your price must be at or below **Fair Price**. This clause is intended to prevent rent‑seeking and exploitation built on restricting user freedoms.

6.3 **No paywall for freedoms.** You may not condition access to Corresponding Source, Deployment Information, or essential build/upgrade paths on payment beyond Fair Price or on acceptance of additional proprietary terms.

6.4 **Data export.** For hosted services, you must provide users with structured export of their data and content sufficient to self‑host or migrate to compatible services.

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## 7. Anti‑DRM and Anti‑Weaponization

7.1 **DRM and surveillance.** You must not incorporate or impose digital restrictions management (DRM), spyware, or surveillance mechanisms that prevent users from exercising freedoms granted by this License.

7.2 **Military use.** The Program must not be used to design, operate, target, or control weapons systems or for purposes whose primary intent is harm to persons. Research into defense of systems (e.g., security hardening) is allowed.

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## 8. Combined Works and Interfaces

8.1 **Aggregates.** Mere aggregation with separate and independent works on a storage or distribution medium does not cause this License to apply to those works.

8.2 **Interfaces and protocols.** Interfacing with external services via open protocols does not by itself create a combined work. If you copy substantial code or ship a module specifically designed to extend the Program, that module is a derivative work and must be licensed under this License when Conveyed or used for Public Use.

8.3 **System libraries.** Linking against unmodified system libraries that are standard components of the operating system or platform does not by itself trigger copyleft for those libraries.

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## 9. Patents (Patent Peace)

9.1 **Patent grant.** Each contributor grants a perpetual, worldwide, royalty‑free, non‑exclusive patent license to make, use, sell, offer to sell, import, and otherwise run the Program, limited to patent claims that would be infringed by their contributions alone or by combination of their contributions with the Program.

9.2 **Defensive termination.** If you initiate or join as a party any patent claim alleging that the Program or a contribution infringes a patent, your rights under this License terminate immediately (§14).

9.3 **No patent royalties.** You may not demand royalties for patents practiced by Corresponding Source that you Convey or operate as a service under this License.

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## 10. Trademarks and Names

10.1  
This License grants **no exclusive trademark rights**, but permits the **factual** use of project, product, or service names (including “Novara,” “NSFL,” and derived designations) **insofar as** such use serves transparency, attribution, or compatibility description.

10.2  
Forks, re‑implementations, or derivative works may **use the same or similar project names**, **provided they clearly indicate** that they are **not** the **official original** (e.g., *“unofficial fork”*, *“based on …”*, *“community edition”*, etc.).

10.3  
This License therefore **allows name reuse with transparent attribution**, prohibiting only **misleading representation** of origin, authorship, or **official endorsement**.

10.4  
References to projects using this License are freely permitted, **provided** they do not imply endorsement or affiliation. Such use is **not** a trademark violation when done **informatively and transparently**.

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## 11. Attribution, Credits, and Notices

11.1  
Forks, ports, or compatible re‑implementations **must clearly identify their origin** – in source code, documentation, and, where present, “About” or “Credits” sections.

11.2  
Modifications, extensions, or deviations from the original must be marked as such, **including the date** and a reference to the **source project or repository**.

11.3  
Acknowledgments of sponsors and service providers are permitted if factual and do not suggest **endorsement** by the original author beyond this License.

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## 12. Conveying Modified Versions

12.1 You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this License to any recipient to whom you Convey the work or provide Public Use access.

12.2 You must provide the Corresponding Source (§1.4) for the entire work you Convey or make available for Public Use, including your modifications and any required build/installation information (§3.3).

12.3 You must document material changes and maintain a clear changelog or commit history accessible to recipients.

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## 13. Compliance, Audits, and Transparency Reports

13.1 **Self‑certification.** You must publish a compliance statement identifying the version/commit of the Program you operate, the location of your Corresponding Source, and the date of last disclosure.

13.2 **Community verification.** The community may perform non‑intrusive verification (e.g., comparing HTTP headers, feature sets, or public images) to assess compliance. You must not attempt to prevent such verification by obfuscation.

13.3 **Transparency reports.** You are encouraged to publish periodic transparency reports summarizing requests you received to restrict user freedoms, and your responses to such requests.

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## 14. Termination and Reinstatement

14.1 **Automatic termination.** Any material violation of §§3–7 or §12–§13 terminates your rights under this License immediately and automatically.

14.2 **Cure period.** If you cease all violations and provide complete corrective disclosure within **30 days** of discovery or notification (whichever comes first), your rights are **automatically reinstated** as of the date the violation ceased.

14.3 **Blacklist.** Inclusion on a public Blacklist (§1.10) for systematic or bad‑faith violations suspends your rights. Removal from the Blacklist requires credible remediation and commitment to future compliance.

14.4 **Downstream protection.** Termination of your rights does not terminate the rights of recipients who received the Program from you in good faith and remain in compliance.

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## 15. Additional Permissions

You may supplement this License with additional permissions that relax conditions for specific files or modules, provided such permissions are stated clearly in those files. You may not impose additional restrictions beyond this License’s terms.

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## 16. Warranty Disclaimer

THE PROGRAM IS PROVIDED **“AS IS”**, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON‑INFRINGEMENT. **YOU BEAR THE RISK OF USING THE PROGRAM.**

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## 17. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES, OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT, OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF, OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE PROGRAM OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE PROGRAM.

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## 18. Interpretation and Severability

18.1 **Freedom‑preserving construction.** Ambiguities must be resolved to preserve the user’s freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the Program, and to uphold transparency and fairness obligations.

18.2 **Severability.** If any provision of this License is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

18.3 **No endorsement.** References to other licenses (AGPL, SSPL, etc.) are for context only and do not incorporate those licenses by reference.

18.4 **Entire agreement.** This License constitutes the complete agreement concerning the Program between the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof.

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**END OF TERMS (EN)**
