PUBLIC DOMAIN NOTICE
National Center for Biotechnology Information

With the exception of certain third-party files summarized below,  this
software/database is a "United States Government Work" under the terms of
the United States Copyright Act. It was written as part of the author's
official duties as a United States Government employees and thus cannot be
copyrighted. This software/database is freely available to the public for
use. The NLM 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 NLM and the U.S. Government do
not and cannot warrant the performance or results that may be obtained by
using this software or data. The NLM 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 author in any work or product based on this material.

EXCEPTIONS (in all cases excluding NCBI-written makefiles):

<list of exceptions>

Copyright F.A.Q.

Q. Our product makes use of the NCBI source code, and we made changes and
additions to that version of the NCBI 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.

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

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

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 '<email address>'.


