Recalbox includes many packages under various free licenses (GPL, BSD, MIT, etc.), and the Recalbox code itself is released under its own license.
Here is the text of the license used for Recalbox (LICENSE.md):
Redistribution and use of the RECALBOX code or any derivative works are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: Redistributions may not be sold without authorization, nor may they be used in a commercial product or activity. Redistributions that are modified from the original source must include the complete source code, including the source code for all components used by a binary built from the modified sources. Redistributions 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 OWNER 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.
Although it is not a legal requirement under the license, we ask that anyone who wishes to create derivative works, modified versions, or forks of Recalbox not use code that has not yet reached the
masterbranch.
Recalbox is built using Buildroot, which bundles many packages under different licenses to produce a complete operating system.
Each package is covered and protected by its own license(s) and remains the property of its respective author(s). Buildroot provides a legal information mechanism giving an overview of the licenses used by each package; we invite you to check the license(s) of any package you are interested in.
Although some package licenses may be incompatible with each other, Recalbox is not considered a "derivative work" or a "modified version" of them, but a simple aggregation. As such, the virality of some licenses does not impact the licensing of other packages, nor the licensing of Recalbox itself. See the General Public License (GPL) FAQ for more details.
For software development projects and creative works, the usual "inbound = outbound" licensing scheme applies, unless otherwise specified.
As explained in GitHub's open-source guides, this means that an open-source license implicitly serves as an inbound (from contributors) and outbound (to other contributors and users) license.
By contributing to one of our projects, you therefore accept the terms of its license and submit your contribution under those same terms.
Recalbox is not limited to its main repository: we also maintain other projects included in Recalbox or part of its infrastructure.
Overview of the licenses of the main projects:
We also maintain and distribute themes for Recalbox, released under the following licenses:
| Theme | License |
|---|---|
| recalbox-goa2 | CreativeCommons BY-NC-ND 4.0 |
| recalbox-next | CreativeCommons BY-NC-ND 4.0 |