CONTENTS

  Public Domain Notice
  Exceptions (for bundled 3rd-party code)
  Copyright F.A.Q.


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                     PUBLIC DOMAIN NOTICE
            United States Department of Agriculture
                 Agricultural Research Service

With the exception of certain third-party files summarized below, this
software is a "United States Government Work" under the terms of the
United States Copyright Act.  It was written as part of the authors'
official duties as United States Government employees and thus cannot
be copyrighted.  This software is freely available to the public for
use. The United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural 
Research Service (USDA - ARS) and the U.S. Government have not placed 
any restriction on its use or reproduction.

Although all reasonable efforts have been taken to ensure the accuracy
and reliability of the software and data, the USDA ARS and the U.S.
Government do not and cannot warrant the performance or results tha may 
be obtained by using this software or data. The USDA ARS and the U.S. 
Government disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including
warranties of performance, merchantability or fitness for any particular 
purpose.

Please cite the authors in any work or product based on this material.


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EXCEPTIONS (in all cases excluding USDA-ARS-written makefiles):

Location: 
Author:   
License:  


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Copyright F.A.Q.


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Q. Our product makes use of the USDA - ARS source code, and we made changes
   and additions to that version of the USDA - ARS code to better fit it to
   our needs. Can we copyright the code, and how?

A. You can copyright only the *changes* or the *additions* you made to the
   NCBI source code. You should identify unambiguously those sections of
   the code that were modified, e.g. by commenting any changes you made
   in the code you distribute. Therefore, your license has to make clear
   to users that your product is a combination of code that is public domain
   within the U.S. (but may be subject to copyright by the U.S. in foreign
   countries) and code that has been created or modified by you.

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Q. Can we (re)license all or part of the USDA - ARS source code?

A. No, you cannot license or relicense the source code written by USDA - ARS
   since you cannot claim any copyright in the software that was developed
   at USDA - ARS as a 'government work' and consequently is in the public 
   domain within the U.S.

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Q. What if these copyright guidelines are not clear enough or are not
   applicable to my particular case?

A. Contact us. Send your questions to 'answers@usda.gov'.
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This file was modified from the NCBI Boilerplate LICENSE file
