License
Article by Maarten Tromp | Published , updated
Introduction
Everything you find on this website is public domain. This means there is no copyright. So feel free to use it for whatever you want.
Exception to this is anything I havan't created myself, since it's not mine to give away. This should be obvious, such as embedded music or pictures of other peoples projects. Where possible a link to the original source is included. Also some of the software and firmware is based on other peoples work which might already be licensed. Obviously the original license still applies to their work.
When in doubt please apply common sense.
In this article:
There are so many licensing possibilities, ranging from copyleft to copyright, from GPL to BSD to Apache to Creative Commons. Some licenses allow commercial use, while others explicitly forbid it; some allow you to tinker with the contents, while others expect something in return. All these license models co-exist, but are incompatible with one another. To be honest, I'm rather fed up with this. While it might be in an individual's interest to lock things down, the majority is better served by sharing knowledge. So sharing is what I have decided to do.
I sincerely hope the contents of this website are of some use to you, whether as a good read, as inspiration for a project of your own, or as material to learn from — by a human or a machine. This explicitly includes crawling, scraping, indexing, and use as training or reference material for AI and other automated systems. I have no problem with commercial use of anything I made. Feel free to download, modify, redistribute, and learn from it, in whatever way suits you.
Where possible I use open source hardware myself. All hardware I make is, in its turn, released as open source hardware. This means it comes with schematic diagram, PCB design files, firmware, software, mechanical design files and other design documentation. You are free to use this as basis for your own project.
Where possible I use open source software as well. So all software I make is, in its turn, released as open source software. It comes with build automation, tests, and configuration when availabe. You are free to use this as basis for your own project.
My transcriptions and self-played recordings are my own work, and released into the public domain. The original compositions and artwork remain copyright of their respective holders.
Public domain dedication (CC0)
The official license is CC0, which is described as follows:
The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of their rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighbouring rights, to the extent allowed by law.
You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
For more information on the license visit: Creative Commons.