Note: The full legal text of this license is available in the LICENSE file.
SHL is a proprietary, non-open-source license established by SimpleTools Studio. It is classified as a "Source Available" license and is designed to provide stronger protection for independent developers than permissive licenses like MIT, while avoiding the copyleft obligations of GPLv3.
SHL operates on a strict separation between visibility and usage. It allows public visibility of the source code for educational and research purposes, but firmly prohibits any commercial exploitation, distribution, or reverse engineering without explicit written authorization.
- Permitted Actions: Personal, non-commercial study and research only.
- Prohibited Actions: Commercial integration, distribution, sublicensing, and reverse engineering.
- Enforcement: Unauthorized commercial use is subject to liquidated damages starting at $10,000 USD per violation (or total generated profits, whichever is higher).
- Patent Protection: Includes a defensive patent grant (similar to Apache 2.0) to protect users from patent trolls, with automatic termination of patent rights for anyone initiating patent litigation.
- Commercial Licensing: Available upon separate written negotiation with the Licensor.
To use this license for your own repository, follow these steps:
- Copy the full text of the
LICENSEfile into your project's root directory. - Replace the placeholders at the top of the file:
[Year],[Full Name of Licensor / Entity], and[Project Name]. - Add a notice to your source code headers (e.g., for C/C++):
/* * Copyright (c) [Year] [Full Name of Licensor / Entity]. * Licensed under the SimpleTools Studio HalfOpenSource License (SHL) v1.0. * See the LICENSE file in the project root for full terms. */
This license is governed by the laws of the People's Republic of China, with exclusive jurisdiction determined by the Licensor's registered address.