Initial Commit - Forked from PeakRDL-regblock @ a440cc19769069be831d267505da4f3789a26695

docs/licensing.rst

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+Licensing
+=========
+
+Re-distribution of the PeakRDL-regblock code generator tool shall adhere to the
+terms outlined by the GNU LGPL v3 license. For a copy of the license, see:
+https://github.com/SystemRDL/PeakRDL-regblock/blob/main/LICENSE
+
+
+Why LGPLv3?
+-----------
+LGPLv3 was chosen because my intent is to promote a thriving ecosystem of free and
+open source register automation tools. The license terms discourage this tool from
+being bundled into some commercially sold closed-source software, as that would
+be contrary to this project's philosophy.
+
+
+What is covered by the LGPL v3 license?
+--------------------------------------
+The LGPL license is intended for the code generator itself. This includes all
+Python sources, Jinja template files, as well as testcase infrastructure not
+explicitly mentioned in the exemptions below.
+
+
+What is exempt from the LGPLv3 license?
+---------------------------------------
+Don't worry. Not everything that the PeakRDL-regblock project touches is
+considered LGPLv3 code.
+
+The following are exempt and are free to use with no restrictions:
+
+*   Any code that is generated using PeakRDL-regblock is 100% yours. Since it
+    was derived from your regblock definition, it remains yours. You can
+    distribute it freely, use it in a proprietary ASIC, sell it as part of an
+    IP, whatever.
+*   Any code snippets in this documentation can be freely copy/pasted. These are
+    examples that are intended for this purpose.
+*   All reference files that are downloadable from this documentation, which are
+    also available in the `hdl-src folder in the repository <https://github.com/SystemRDL/PeakRDL-regblock/tree/main/hdl-src>`_
+
+
+Can I use this as part of my company's internally developed tools?
+------------------------------------------------------------------
+Absolutely!
+
+Sometimes it may be necessary to integrate this into a larger toolchain at your
+workplace. This is totally OK, as long as you don't start distributing it
+outside your workplace in ways that violate the LGPLv3 license.
+
+That said, I'd encourage you to check out the `PeakRDL command line tool <https://peakrdl.readthedocs.io/>`_.
+It may already do everything you need.