Licensing ClustalW and ClustalX

Date:29 November 2007

The copyright for ClustalW and ClustalX is held by Des Higgins, Julie Thompson and Toby Gibson

The binaries and source code are made available and can be distributed subject to the following conditions:

Users are free to redistribute ClustalW or ClustalX in it's unmodified form as long as it is not for commercial gain.

Anyone wishing to redistribute Clustal commercially should contact Toby Gibson at gibson@embl.de


If users make changes/have ideas that they believe would be useful to the broader research community they can send their suggestions to the clustal development team at clustalw@ucd.ie where they will be considered for inclusion in future releases.



Frequently asked questions about Clustal licensing?
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1. Do I have to pay to use ClustalW or ClustalX?
No - unless you wish to redistribute Clustal for profit. In this case see question 4.

2. Can I redistribute the Clustal binaries and source code?
Yes. We have always wanted to see Clustal have as wide a userbase and distribution network as possible and are happy to see other sites host copies of the official Clustal code.

3. Can I make changes to the source code?
You can make changes for your own purposes but you should not redistribute the changed code.

4. I want to include ClustalW/ClustalX in a commercial application who should I contact?
Toby Gibson at gibson@embl.de (also cc des.higgins@ucd.ie)

5. There is no Clustal distribution for platform X. I have changed the code in order to compile Clustal on this platform. Can I redistribute it?
Ideally you should send us a copy of your source code changes as well as a binary. We will include it in our contributed binaries section on our FTP site along with an acknowledgement of your contribution.