License
=======

The VHDL Digital Design Samples project is released under the MIT License.

MIT License
-----------

Copyright (c) 2025 Shishir Dey

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

What This Means
---------------

**You are free to:**

- ✅ **Use** the code for personal, educational, or commercial purposes
- ✅ **Modify** the VHDL designs for your own projects
- ✅ **Distribute** the original or modified code
- ✅ **Include** in proprietary software projects
- ✅ **Sublicense** under different terms

**Requirements:**

- 📄 **Include** the license notice in copies of the software
- 📄 **Include** the copyright notice

**Limitations:**

- ❌ **No warranty** - software is provided "as is"
- ❌ **No liability** - authors not responsible for issues
- ❌ **No trademark rights** - license doesn't grant trademark use

Educational Use
---------------

This project is designed for educational purposes. Students, educators, and learning institutions are encouraged to:

- Use the code in coursework and assignments
- Modify designs for learning exercises
- Build upon the examples for projects
- Share improvements with the community

Attribution
-----------

While not required by the MIT License, attribution is appreciated:

.. code-block:: text

   Based on VHDL Digital Design Samples
   https://github.com/shishir-dey/vhdl-samples
   Copyright (c) 2025 Shishir Dey

Contributing
------------

By contributing to this project, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under the same MIT License.

Dependencies
------------

This project uses the following tools and libraries:

**GHDL** - GPL-licensed VHDL simulator
  - Used for compilation and simulation
  - Not redistributed with this project
  - Users must install separately

**Sphinx and Extensions** - Various licenses
  - Used for documentation generation
  - Optional dependency
  - Each extension has its own license

**GitHub Actions** - GitHub Terms of Service
  - Used for CI/CD automation
  - Service provided by GitHub

Third-Party Components
----------------------

Any third-party VHDL components or designs included in this project will have their licenses clearly marked. Currently, all code is original work by the project contributors.

Questions
---------

If you have questions about licensing or usage rights, please:

- Review the full LICENSE file in the repository
- Open an issue on GitHub for clarification
- Contact the project maintainers

**Disclaimer**: This license summary is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. The full MIT License text takes precedence.