## Project license and copyright status

Simson Garfinkel originally developed **bulk_extractor** while at the Naval
Postgraduate School (NPS). Original works created in that U.S. Government
employment are not subject to U.S. copyright protection under 17 U.S.C. § 105.
That status applies only to the original NPS material.

Simson Garfinkel left NPS in January 2015. All post-NPS, project-authored
bulk_extractor code and documentation developed or modified in his personal
capacity are licensed under the **GNU General Public License, version 3 or
later (GPL-3.0-or-later)**. Third-party components retain their original
license terms as stated in their source headers and applicable files under
[`licenses/`](licenses/); the [Other materials](#other-materials) list is a
non-authoritative inventory. The GPLv3 text is in
[`licenses/LICENSE.GPLv3`](licenses/LICENSE.GPLv3). Distributions of the
program must therefore comply with the GPL and provide the corresponding
source as required by that license.

This GPL statement supersedes the prior statement that post-NPS modifications
were under the MIT License. Do not describe bulk_extractor as a public-domain
project: only the identified original NPS material has that status.

## Other materials

bulk_extractor provides other materials with different licenses than the
ones mentioned previously. Copies of the licenses mentioned below can be
found under the licenses/ directory.

Licensed under the Common Public License 1.0

* src/tsk3 includes SleuthKit 3 include files that are party of
SleuthKit 3. These files are  Copyright (C) 2010 Brian Carrier
  - Licensed under the MIT License

* src/base64_forensic.cpp is Copyright (C) 1996-1999 by Internet Software Consortium, with
 portions Copyright (C) 1995 by International Business Machines, Inc.

* src/be13_api/utf8.h is Copyright 2006 Nemanja Trifunovic

* src/old_scanners/scan_ascii85.cpp is Copyright (C) 2011 Remy Oukaour

* src/scan_json.cpp is Copyright (C) 2021 Simson L. Garfinkel and Jan Gruber
  - Licensed under General Public License version 3 and later

* src/pyxpress.c is Copyright 2008 (C) Matthieu Suiche. <msuiche[at]gmail.com>
  - Licensed under Lesser General Public License version 2.1

* src/scan_elf.cpp
  - Licensed under Lesser General Public License version 3 and later

* src/dfxml is Copyright 2012 (C) Simson L. Garfinkel

* src/scan_outlook.h is Copyright (C) 2008-2014, Joachim Metz <joachim.metz@gmail.com>
  - Licensed under General Public License version 3 with the Autoconf exception:

* m4/ac_prog_java.m4 is Copyright (C) 2000 Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer@pasteur.fr>

* m4/ac_prog_java_works.m4 is Copyright (C) 2000 Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer@pasteur.fr>

* m4/ac_check_rqrd_class.m4 is Copyright (C) 2000 Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer@pasteur.fr>

* m4/ax_pthread.m4 is Copyright (C) 2008 Steven G. Johnson <stevenj@alum.mit.edu>, 2011 Daniel Richard G. <skunk@iSKUNK.ORG>

* m4/ac_prog_java_cc.m4 is Copyright (C) 2002 Nic Ferrier <nferrier@tapsellferrier.co.uk>

* m4/ac_prog_javac.m4 is Copyright (C) 2000 Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer@pasteur.fr>

* m4/ac_prog_javac_works.m4 is Copyright (C) 2000 Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer@pasteur.fr>

* m4/ac_check_classpath.m4 is Copyright (C) 2000 Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer@pasteur.fr>
  - Licensed under OpenSSL License
  - NOTE: Because of the fact that the GPL (including version 3) is incompatible with some terms of the OpenSSL license, the author hereby explicitly states a license exception, which permits the linking of bulk_extractor with OpenSSL.
