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License FAQ
PolyForm is a family of configurable licenses that are intended to be used for software. They are analogous to the configurable Creative Commons (CC) licenses, although the CC licenses aren't intended for software.
PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 is the specific license that Crystal uses. It allows wide noncommercial distribution of the unmodified Crystal program. It does however disallow commercial distribution; you may not sell copies of Crystal nor may you incorporate code from Crystal into works which are themselves sold.
Crystal's primary author David Foster has spent over 10 years of effort developing Crystal and does not wish that it be sold by others without him receiving any payment.
Open source licenses, using the OSI definition of "open source", do not allow restricting commercial distribution, making it a poor fit for Crystal. As mentioned above, Crystal's primary author does not wish Crystal to be sold by others without him receiving any payment.
Yes! Crystal welcomes code contributions. The PolyForm Noncommercial license only affects how Crystal as a whole is distributed. It does not restrict your ability to contribute code or your rights as a contributor.
As a contributor:
- You retain full copyright over your contributions
- You can use your contributed code in other projects under any license you choose
- Your contributions become part of Crystal under the same PolyForm Noncommercial license
- There is no exclusive assignment of rights. You simply grant Crystal permission to use your contribution under its existing license.
This is similar to how many projects work: your contribution becomes part of the larger work while you retain your rights to the original contribution.