Licensing of the ACPICA Source Code
The ACPICA source code is offered under these three different licenses:
- GPLv2 license
- BSD license
- A non-OSI source license (the “Intel license”)
You can choose the license that best fits your development model. Two of the licenses used, GPLv2 and BSD, are OSI-approved open source licenses, one of which is copyleft and one of which is permissive. The other license, the “Intel license,” is permissive and provides source code, but has not been submitted for OSI approval. Some ACPICA customers nevertheless prefer the Intel license over the OSI-approved license options. To determine which license is best for your needs, consult with your legal counsel.
To view the ACPICA licenses, see ACPICA licensing source code header.
Learn more about multi-licensing.
Select the license you want to use for ACPICA via the following source code packages. There are separate source code downloads (.tar or .zip) for the license version from Intel and for the BSD and GPLv2 license version (called the “dual license” version).
Packages from Intel containing the license in the source code module headers:
- acpica-unix
- acpica-win
- iasl-win (binary Windows* versions of ACPICA tools)
Packages containing the GPLv2/BSD dual license in the source code module headers:
- acpica-unix2 (deprecated and will be removed)
- acpitests-unix
- acpitests-win
For source code packages that contain the Intel license, only the Intel license applies; for packages that contain the dual license, you can choose either the BSD or GPLv2 license you wish to apply to your use of ACPICA.
The ACPICA test suite is licensed under the GPLv2/BSD license only.
Submitting Contributions to ACPICA
Any contributions (including patches, bug fixes, improvements, or new features) submitted to the ACPICA project is governed by the “simplified” BSD license reproduced below. Contributions to ACPICA are accepted under this license in order to preserve ACPICA’s ability to license ACPICA under all three of the licenses described above. The way to submit patches and/or bug reports or fixes is by creating the appropriate ticket (issue, pull request) on our GitHub* page.
License for Contributions to ACPICA
Copyright © 2000 – 2023 Intel Corp.
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions, and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions, and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.