Understanding the Ncurses License

Ncurses uses a permissive, open-source licensing model based on the MIT-style license. Most distributions refer to it as the Ncurses License. It is not copyleft. It allows free use, modification, and redistribution in both source and binary form. You can include ncurses in proprietary projects without being forced to open your own code, as long as you preserve attribution and the copyright notice.

The terms are short and clear. There are no patent clauses, no viral effects, and no fees. The obligations are minimal: keep the license text with the software, do not misrepresent authorship, and respect trademarks. There is no liability warranty. Once you ship, you take responsibility for how ncurses behaves in your software.

Ncurses licensing makes it a safe choice for terminal handling in commercial, closed-source, or experimental projects. When compared to GPL libraries, it avoids the risk of license conflicts. When compared to BSD, it is almost identical in practice. Package managers across Linux, BSD, and macOS distribute it under the same terms, so compliance stays simple across environments.

If you fork ncurses, you must keep the license in your fork. If you patch and distribute binaries, you must include the notice. That’s all. This model enables rapid deployment without legal overhead. It is one of the reasons ncurses remains the default tool for text-based UI over decades.

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