The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has created its molecular dynamics software, NAMD, developed by the Theoretical Biophysics Group (``TBG'') at Illinois' Beckman Institute available free of charge for non-commercial use by individuals, academic or research institutions and corporations for in-house business purposes only, upon completion and submission of the online registration form presented when attempting to download NAMD at the web site http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/namd/.
Commercial use of the NAMD software, or derivative works based thereon, REQUIRES A COMMERCIAL LICENSE. Commercial use includes: (1) integration of all or part of the Software into a product for sale, lease or license by or on behalf of Licensee to third parties, or (2) distribution of the Software to third parties that need it to commercialize product sold or licensed by or on behalf of Licensee. The University of Illinois will negotiate commercial-use licenses for NAMD upon request. These requests can be directed to namd@ks.uiuc.edu
In completing the online registration form presented before downloading individuals may register in their own name or with their institutional or corporate affiliations. Registration information must include name, title, and e-mail of a person with signature authority to authorize and commit the individuals, academic or research institution, or corporation as necessary to the terms and conditions of the license agreement.
All parts of the information must be understood and agreed to as part of completing the form. Completion of the form is required before software access is granted. Pay particular attention to the authorized requester requirements above, and be sure that the form submission is authorized by the duly responsible person.
Upon execution of this Agreement by the party identified below (``Licensee''), The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (``Illinois''), on behalf of The Theoretical Biophysics Group (``TBG'') in the Beckman Institute, will provide the molecular dynamics software NAMD in Executable Code and/or Source Code form (``Software'') to Licensee, subject to the following terms and conditions. For purposes of this Agreement, Executable Code is the compiled code, which is ready to run on Licensee's computer. Source code consists of a set of files which contain the actual program commands that are compiled to form the Executable Code.
1. The Software is intellectual property owned by Illinois, and all right, title and interest, including copyright, remain with Illinois. Illinois grants, and Licensee hereby accepts, a restricted, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Software for academic, research and internal business purposes only e.g. not for commercial use (see Paragraph 7 below), without a fee. Licensee agrees to reproduce the copyright notice and other proprietary markings on all copies of the Software. Licensee has no right to transfer or sublicense the Software to any unauthorized person or entity. However, Licensee does have the right to make complimentary works that interoperate with NAMD, to freely distribute such complimentary works, and to direct others to the TBG server to obtain copies of NAMD itself.
2. Licensee may, at its own expense, modify the Software to make derivative works, for its own academic, research, and internal business purposes. Licensee's distribution of any derivative work is also subject to the same restrictions on distribution and use limitations that are specified herein for Illinois' Software. Prior to any such distribution the Licensee shall require the recipient of the Licensee's derivative work to first execute a license for NAMD with Illinois in accordance with the terms and conditions of this Agreement. Any derivative work should be clearly marked and renamed to notify users that it is a modified version and not the original NAMD code distributed by Illinois.
3. Except as expressly set forth in this Agreement, THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND ILLINOIS MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS AND EXTENDS NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OR MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR THAT THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY PATENT, TRADEMARK, OR OTHER RIGHTS. LICENSEE ASSUMES THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE AND/OR ASSOCIATED MATERIALS. LICENSEE AGREES THAT UNIVERSITY SHALL NOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES WITH RESPECT TO ANY CLAIM BY LICENSEE OR ANY THIRD PARTY ON ACCOUNT OF OR ARISING FROM THIS AGREEMENT OR USE OF THE SOFTWARE AND/OR ASSOCIATED MATERIALS.
4. Licensee understands the Software is proprietary to Illinois. Licensee agrees to take all reasonable steps to insure that the Software is protected and secured from unauthorized disclosure, use, or release and will treat it with at least the same level of care as Licensee would use to protect and secure its own proprietary computer programs and/or information, but using no less than a reasonable standard of care. Licensee agrees to provide the Software only to any other person or entity who has registered with Illinois. If licensee is not registering as an individual but as an institution or corporation each member of the institution or corporation who has access to or uses Software must understand and agree to the terms of this license. If Licensee becomes aware of any unauthorized licensing, copying or use of the Software, Licensee shall promptly notify Illinois in writing. Licensee expressly agrees to use the Software only in the manner and for the specific uses authorized in this Agreement.
5. By using or copying this Software, Licensee agrees to abide by the copyright law and all other applicable laws of the U.S. including, but not limited to, export control laws and the terms of this license. Illinois shall have the right to terminate this license immediately by written notice upon Licensee's breach of, or non-compliance with, any of its terms. Licensee may be held legally responsible for any copyright infringement that is caused or encouraged by its failure to abide by the terms of this license. Upon termination, Licensee agrees to destroy all copies of the Software in its possession and to verify such destruction in writing.
6. The user agrees that any reports or published results obtained with the Software will acknowledge its use by the appropriate citation as follows:
NAMD was developed by the Theoretical Biophysics Group in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Any published work which utilizes NAMD shall include the following reference:
James C. Phillips, Rosemary Braun, Wei Wang, James Gumbart, Emad Tajkhorshid, Elizabeth Villa, Christophe Chipot, Robert D. Skeel, Laxmikant Kale, and Klaus Schulten. Scalable molecular dynamics with NAMD. Journal of Computational Chemistry, 26:1781-1802, 2005.
Electronic documents will include a direct link to the official NAMD page:
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/namd/
One copy of each publication or report will be supplied to Illinois at the addresses listed below in Contact Information.
7. Should Licensee wish to make commercial use of the Software, Licensee will contact Illinois (namd@ks.uiuc.edu) to negotiate an appropriate license for such use. Commercial use includes: (1) integration of all or part of the Software into a product for sale, lease or license by or on behalf of Licensee to third parties, or (2) distribution of the Software to third parties that need it to commercialize product sold or licensed by or on behalf of Licensee.
8. Government Rights. Because substantial governmental funds have been used in the development of NAMD, any possession, use or sublicense of the Software by or to the United States government shall be subject to such required restrictions.
9. NAMD is being distributed as a research and teaching tool and as such, TBG encourages contributions from users of the code that might, at Illinois' sole discretion, be used or incorporated to make the basic operating framework of the Software a more stable, flexible, and/or useful product. Licensees that wish to contribute their code to become an internal portion of the Software may be required to sign an ``Agreement Regarding Contributory Code for NAMD Software'' before Illinois can accept it (contact namd@ks.uiuc.edu for a copy).
The best contact path for licensing issues is by e-mail to namd@ks.uiuc.edu or send correspondence to:
NAMD Team
Theoretical Biophysics Group
Beckman Institute
University of Illinois
405 North Mathews MC-251
Urbana, Illinois 61801 USA
FAX: (217) 244-6078