The MASM32 project is licenced freeware available to any programmer who wishes to either learn or write 32 bit Microsoft Assembler. All of the software in the MASM32 project is copyright (c) software that cannot be purchased, sold, re-licenced, attached or bundled with any form of software whatsoever.

This licence for the MASM32 Project supersedes all earlier versions of the licence. This licence is dated the 28th of December 2004 and it or its successor will be included in any later distributions of the MASM32 project.

Licence Compliance.
The MASM32 licence affords the user a range of rights in producing and distributing code that the user has written using the project. To obtain these rights, the user must be willing to fully comply with the MASM32 licence. If the user is not willing to fully comply with the licence, then they have no right of use of any part of the MASM32 project. If a right of use is not extended, it remains reserved.

Extent of Liability from use of the MASM32 Project.
Users of the MASM32 project must be willing to accept the full and unconditional responsibility for the software that they write using the MASM32 project. Under no circumstances is the project, the owners of the software contained in the project or the authors of any binaries or source code in the project subject to any form of legal liability for any problems, lack of suitability, damage or financial loss that arises from use of software written using this project. Any problems that arise with use of software created with the MASM32 project must be taken up with the author of the software, not the project that the author has used to create the software.

If a user is within a jurisdiction that excludes this disclaimer of any form of liability whatsoever, do not use this software. Noting that this project cannot be either purchased or sold, if any jurisdiction locally overrides this disclaimer, the full extent of financial damages is contained in the cost of the project. Any person or party who has paid for the software contained in the MASM32 project has violated the licence for the project and has no right to use it.

Definition of illegal software.
The MASM32 project is legal mainstream software and cannot be used to create any form of illegal software whatsoever. The definition of "illegal software" for the purposes of the content of this licence refers to the software produced with the project, not the stated intent of the author. The definition includes while not being limited to software for hacking purposes, transmission of either virus or trojan content and/or infection(s) and any software that performs actions prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Any such software is deemed to be illegal software for the purposes of the content of this licence.

What you CAN do with the MASM32 Project ?
You can write your own software using the project without being subject to any form of royalty whatsoever and you may distribute your software in any manner you see fit including selling your software.

1. Any software that you write using the MASM32 Project is your private property with unconditional rights of ownership.
2. You have the non-exclusive right to include assembled/compiled code from the MASM32 Project in your software without,
    (a) having to acknowledge the origin of the code.
    (b) having to extend credit(s) to any person or project for the use of that code.
    (c) having to publish your code by using assembled/compiled code from the MASM32 Project.

The definition of "assembled/compiled" code in this context is source code contained in the MASM32 Project and library code contained in the MASM32 Project that is or can be used in an assembled application written using the MASM32 Project. The same definition applies to building applications using an object module compatible C compiler.

If it suits your requirement you may acknowledge that the software was written using the MASM32 Project as long as the software is legal software in the jurisdiction that it is either written in or distributed in.

What you CANNOT do with the MASM32 Project.
1. The MASM32 Project is not an item of trade or commerce. It cannot be either purchased or sold.
2. The MASM32 Project cannot be re-licenced or made subordinate to any other form of licence.
3. None of its components or source code are redistributable.
4. You cannot use the MASM32 Project to write software for Non-Microsoft Operating Systems.
5. You cannot use the MASM32 Project to write any form of illegal software.
6. The project does not authorise the use of the Microsoft Trademark in your software or claims that your software is certified by Microsoft.

Who can use the MASM32 Project ?
The licence extends to any private individual, organisation, educational institution, Government Department and any Company and/or Corporation for their personal/internal use and it can be used to develop and distribute or sell software for the Windows Operating System.

Who cannot use the MASM32 project.
Any person, party or entity that undertakes any form of legal action whatsoever against the project, its authors, the owners and/or copyright holders of any software contained in the project is licenced to completely and unconditionally remove the software from their computer(s) and nothing else. Retention of the software under these circumstances is a violation of the terms and conditions of the licence.

Why is the MASM32 Project licenced in this manner ?
From its origin in 1998, the MASM32 Project has been subject to many attempts to compromise its true freeware status and this extends to attempts to commercialise the project, plaigarise parts of its content for resale and attempts to absorb it under alternative and incompatible licencing systems that restrict the rights of the user of the project. To protect the project from any of the attempts to compromise its integrity, it is Copyright (c) software that cannot be exploited in any of the mentioned methods.

The MASM32 Project is true freeware written by programmers for programmers so that they can realise the full power of the Windows Operating System without being subject to any additional conditions or external interests. The project has been designed as enabling technology to extend the capacity and range of programmers interested in learning and writing Microsoft assembler for Microsoft Operating Systems.

Independent and exclusive licence for the MASM32 project.
The licence for the MASM32 project is a completely frestanding and independent licence that is not subject to any other form of external licence whatsoever. The licence for the MASM32 project cannot be modified, re-licenced or absorbed under any other licencing system whatsoever and functions to the exclusion of any other form of external licence.

Exclusion of open source projects and software.
The MASM32 project cannot be used to create open source software or any other project under any form of licence that requires the user of the MASM32 project to surrender the rights they are afforded under the MASM32 licence. In particular the MASM32 licence completely excludes projects licenced under the GNU organisation's published GPL licence and/or variants.

Steve Hutchesson
for the MASM32 Project
1998-2004