SQLite Is Public Domain

All of the code and documentation in SQLite has been dedicated to the public
domain by the authors. All code authors, and representatives of the companies
they work for, have signed affidavits dedicating their contributions to the
public domain and originals of those signed affidavits are stored in a firesafe
at the main offices of Hwaci. All contributors are citizens of countries that
allow creative works to be dedicated into the public domain. Anyone is free to
copy, modify, publish, use, compile, sell, or distribute the original SQLite
code, either in source code form or as a compiled binary, for any purpose,
commercial or non-commercial, and by any means.

The previous paragraph applies to the deliverable code and documentation in
SQLite - those parts of the SQLite library that you actually bundle and ship
with a larger application. Some scripts used as part of the build process (for
example the "configure" scripts generated by autoconf) might fall under other
open-source licenses. Nothing from these build scripts ever reaches the final
deliverable SQLite library, however, and so the licenses associated with those
scripts should not be a factor in assessing your rights to copy and use the
SQLite library.

All of the deliverable code in SQLite has been written from scratch. No code
has been taken from other projects or from the open internet. Every line of
code can be traced back to its original author, and all of those authors have
public domain dedications on file. So the SQLite code base is clean and is
uncontaminated with licensed code from other projects.

Open-Source, not Open-Contribution

SQLite is open-source, meaning that you can make as many copies of it as you
want and do whatever you want with those copies, without limitation. But SQLite
is not open-contribution. In order to keep SQLite in the public domain and
ensure that the code does not become contaminated with proprietary or licensed
content, the project does not accept patches from people who have not submitted
an affidavit dedicating their contribution into the public domain.

All of the code in SQLite is original, having been written specifically for use
by SQLite. No code has been copied from unknown sources on the internet.

Warranty of Title

SQLite is in the public domain and does not require a license. Even so, some
organizations want legal proof of their right to use SQLite. Circumstances
where this might occur include the following:

  • Your company desires indemnity against claims of copyright infringement.
  • You are using SQLite in a jurisdiction that does not recognize the public
    domain.
  • You are using SQLite in a jurisdiction that does not recognize the right of
    an author to dedicate their work to the public domain.
  • You want to hold a tangible legal document as evidence that you have the
    legal right to use and distribute SQLite.
  • Your legal department tells you that you must purchase a license.

If any of the above circumstances apply to you, Hwaci, the company that employs
all the developers of SQLite, will sell you a Warranty of Title for SQLite. A
Warranty of Title is a legal document that asserts that the claimed authors of
SQLite are the true authors, and that the authors have the legal right to
dedicate the SQLite library into the public domain, and that Hwaci will
vigorously defend against challenges to those claims. All proceeds from the
sale of SQLite Warranties of Title are used to fund continuing improvement and
support of SQLite.

Contributed Code

In order to keep SQLite completely free and unencumbered by copyright, the
project does not accept patches. If you would like to suggest a change and you
include a patch as a proof-of-concept, that would be great. However, please do
not be offended if we rewrite your patch from scratch.
