Merge pull request #3158 from ickc/COPY-LICENSE

Use the markdown version of COPYING from GNU

7 files changed, 366 insertions, 351 deletions

diff --git a/COPYING b/COPYING
deleted file mode 100644
index f5a903b4f..000000000
--- a/COPYING
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,346 +0,0 @@
-GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
-==========================
-
-Version 2, June 1991
-
-Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  
-51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
-
-Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
-of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
-
-Preamble
---------
-
-The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
-freedom to share and change it.  By contrast, the GNU General Public
-License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
-software--to make sure the software is free for all its users.  This
-General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
-Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
-using it.  (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
-the GNU Library General Public License instead.)  You can apply it to
-your programs, too.
-
-When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
-price.  Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
-have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
-this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
-if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
-in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
-
-To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
-anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
-These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
-distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
-
-For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
-gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
-you have.  You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
-source code.  And you must show them these terms so they know their
-rights.
-
-We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
-(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
-distribute and/or modify the software.
-
-Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
-that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
-software.  If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
-want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
-that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
-authors' reputations.
-
-Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
-patents.  We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
-program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
-program proprietary.  To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
-patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
-
-The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
-modification follow.
-
-GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
---------------------------
-
-TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
-
-0.  This License applies to any program or other work which contains
-    a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
-    under the terms of this General Public License.  The "Program", below,
-    refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program"
-    means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
-    that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
-    either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
-    language.  (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
-    the term "modification".)  Each licensee is addressed as "you".
-
-    Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
-    covered by this License; they are outside its scope.  The act of
-    running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
-    is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
-    Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
-    Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
-
-1.  You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
-    source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
-    conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
-    copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
-    notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
-    and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
-    along with the Program.
-
-    You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
-    you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
-
-2.  You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
-    of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
-    distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
-    above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
-
-    a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
-    stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
-
-    b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
-    whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
-    part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
-    parties under the terms of this License.
-
-    c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
-    when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
-    interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
-    announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
-    notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
-    a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
-    these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
-    License.  (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
-    does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
-    the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
-
-    These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole.  If
-    identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
-    and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
-    themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
-    sections when you distribute them as separate works.  But when you
-    distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
-    on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
-    this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
-    entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
-
-    Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
-    your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
-    exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
-    collective works based on the Program.
-
-    In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
-    with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
-    a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
-    the scope of this License.
-
-3.  You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
-    under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
-    Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
-
-    a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
-    source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
-    1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
-
-    b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
-    years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
-    cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
-    machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
-    distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
-    customarily used for software interchange; or,
-
-    c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
-    to distribute corresponding source code.  (This alternative is
-    allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
-    received the program in object code or executable form with such
-    an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
-
-    The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
-    making modifications to it.  For an executable work, complete source
-    code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
-    associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
-    control compilation and installation of the executable.  However, as a
-    special exception, the source code distributed need not include
-    anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
-    form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
-    operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
-    itself accompanies the executable.
-
-    If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
-    access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
-    access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
-    distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
-    compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
-
-4.  You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
-    except as expressly provided under this License.  Any attempt
-    otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
-    void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
-    However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
-    this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
-    parties remain in full compliance.
-
-5.  You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
-    signed it.  However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
-    distribute the Program or its derivative works.  These actions are
-    prohibited by law if you do not accept this License.  Therefore, by
-    modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
-    Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
-    all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
-    the Program or works based on it.
-
-6.  Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
-    Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
-    original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
-    these terms and conditions.  You may not impose any further
-    restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
-    You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
-    this License.
-
-7.  If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
-    infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
-    conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
-    otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
-    excuse you from the conditions of this License.  If you cannot
-    distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
-    License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
-    may not distribute the Program at all.  For example, if a patent
-    license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
-    all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
-    the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
-    refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
-
-    If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
-    any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
-    apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
-    circumstances.
-
-    It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
-    patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
-    such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
-    integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
-    implemented by public license practices.  Many people have made
-    generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
-    through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
-    system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
-    to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
-    impose that choice.
-
-    This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
-    be a consequence of the rest of this License.
-
-8.  If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
-    certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
-    original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
-    may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
-    those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
-    countries not thus excluded.  In such case, this License incorporates
-    the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
-
-9.  The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
-    of the General Public License from time to time.  Such new versions will
-    be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
-    address new problems or concerns.
-
-    Each version is given a distinguishing version number.  If the Program
-    specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any
-    later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions
-    either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
-    Software Foundation.  If the Program does not specify a version number of
-    this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
-    Foundation.
-
-10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
-    programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
-    to ask for permission.  For software which is copyrighted by the Free
-    Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
-    make exceptions for this.  Our decision will be guided by the two goals
-    of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
-    of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
-
-NO WARRANTY
-
-11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
-    FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN
-    OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
-    PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
-    OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
-    MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS
-    TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE
-    PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
-    REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
-
-12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
-    WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
-    REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
-    INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
-    OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
-    TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
-    YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
-    PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
-    POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
-
-END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
-
-How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
----------------------------------------------
-
-If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
-possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
-free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
-
-To do so, attach the following notices to the program.  It is safest
-to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
-convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
-the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
-
-    <one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
-    Copyright (C) <year>  <name of author>
-
-    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
-    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
-    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
-    (at your option) any later version.
-
-    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
-    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
-    GNU General Public License for more details.
-
-    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
-    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
-    Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301 USA
-
-Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
-
-If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
-when it starts in an interactive mode:
-
-    Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year  name of author
-    Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
-    This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
-    under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
-
-The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate
-parts of the General Public License.  Of course, the commands you use may
-be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be
-mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.
-
-You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
-school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if
-necessary.  Here is a sample; alter the names:
-
-    Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
-    `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
-
-    <signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
-    Ty Coon, President of Vice
-
-This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
-proprietary programs.  If your program is a subroutine library, you may
-consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
-library.  If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
-Public License instead of this License.
diff --git a/COPYING.md b/COPYING.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..af5153d8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/COPYING.md
@@ -0,0 +1,361 @@
+### GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
+
+Version 2, June 1991
+
+    Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  
+    51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA
+
+    Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
+    of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
+
+### Preamble
+
+The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom
+to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is
+intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
+software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This
+General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
+Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
+using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
+the GNU Lesser General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
+your programs, too.
+
+When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
+price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
+have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
+this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
+if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
+in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
+
+To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
+anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
+These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if
+you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
+
+For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
+gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
+you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
+source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
+rights.
+
+We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
+(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
+distribute and/or modify the software.
+
+Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
+that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
+software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on,
+we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the
+original, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect
+on the original authors' reputations.
+
+Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
+patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
+program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
+program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
+patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at
+all.
+
+The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
+modification follow.
+
+### TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
+
+**0.** This License applies to any program or other work which
+contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be
+distributed under the terms of this General Public License. The
+"Program", below, refers to any such program or work, and a "work
+based on the Program" means either the Program or any derivative work
+under copyright law: that is to say, a work containing the Program or
+a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or
+translated into another language. (Hereinafter, translation is
+included without limitation in the term "modification".) Each licensee
+is addressed as "you".
+
+Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
+covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of
+running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
+is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program
+(independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that
+is true depends on what the Program does.
+
+**1.** You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
+source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
+conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
+copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
+notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
+and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
+along with the Program.
+
+You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
+you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a
+fee.
+
+**2.** You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any
+portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
+distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
+above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
+
+  
+**a)** You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
+stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
+
+  
+**b)** You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
+whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part
+thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties
+under the terms of this License.
+
+  
+**c)** If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
+when run, you must cause it, when started running for such interactive
+use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announcement
+including an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is
+no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and that
+users may redistribute the program under these conditions, and telling
+the user how to view a copy of this License. (Exception: if the
+Program itself is interactive but does not normally print such an
+announcement, your work based on the Program is not required to print
+an announcement.)
+
+These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
+identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
+and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
+themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
+sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
+distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
+on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
+this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
+entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote
+it.
+
+Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
+your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
+exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
+collective works based on the Program.
+
+In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
+with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
+a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
+the scope of this License.
+
+**3.** You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
+under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
+Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
+
+  
+**a)** Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
+source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1
+and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
+
+  
+**b)** Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
+years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of
+physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable
+copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the
+terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for
+software interchange; or,
+
+  
+**c)** Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
+to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed
+only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the
+program in object code or executable form with such an offer, in
+accord with Subsection b above.)
+
+The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
+making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
+code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
+associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
+control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a
+special exception, the source code distributed need not include
+anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
+form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
+operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
+itself accompanies the executable.
+
+If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
+access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
+access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
+distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
+compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
+
+**4.** You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
+except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise
+to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and
+will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However,
+parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this
+License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
+parties remain in full compliance.
+
+**5.** You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
+signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
+distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are
+prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by
+modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
+Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
+all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
+the Program or works based on it.
+
+**6.** Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on
+the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
+original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
+these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further
+restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
+You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
+this License.
+
+**7.** If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of
+patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent
+issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order,
+agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this
+License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License.
+If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your
+obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations,
+then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all. For
+example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free
+redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly
+or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it
+and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the
+Program.
+
+If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
+any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
+apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
+circumstances.
+
+It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
+patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
+such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
+integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
+implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
+generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
+through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
+system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
+to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
+impose that choice.
+
+This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
+be a consequence of the rest of this License.
+
+**8.** If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
+certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
+original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
+may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
+those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
+countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates
+the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
+
+**9.** The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new
+versions of the General Public License from time to time. Such new
+versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
+differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.
+
+Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
+specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and
+"any later version", you have the option of following the terms and
+conditions either of that version or of any later version published by
+the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a
+version number of this License, you may choose any version ever
+published by the Free Software Foundation.
+
+**10.** If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other
+free programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to
+the author to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by
+the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation;
+we sometimes make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by
+the two goals of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our
+free software and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software
+generally.
+
+**NO WARRANTY**
+
+**11.** BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO
+WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.
+EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR
+OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY
+KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
+IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
+PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE
+PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME
+THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
+
+**12.** IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN
+WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY
+AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU
+FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR
+CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE
+PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING
+RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A
+FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF
+SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGES.
+
+### END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
+
+### How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
+
+If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
+possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
+free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these
+terms.
+
+To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest to
+attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
+convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
+the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
+
+    one line to give the program's name and an idea of what it does.
+    Copyright (C) yyyy  name of author
+
+    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+    modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
+    as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
+    of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+
+    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+    GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+    Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.
+
+Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper
+mail.
+
+If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
+when it starts in an interactive mode:
+
+    Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author
+    Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details
+    type `show w'.  This is free software, and you are welcome
+    to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `show c' 
+    for details.
+
+The hypothetical commands \`show w' and \`show c' should show the
+appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the
+commands you use may be called something other than \`show w' and
+\`show c'; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever
+suits your program.
+
+You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or
+your school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program,
+if necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
+
+    Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright
+    interest in the program `Gnomovision'
+    (which makes passes at compilers) written 
+    by James Hacker.
+
+    signature of Ty Coon, 1 April 1989
+    Ty Coon, President of Vice
+
+This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program
+into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library,
+you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary
+applications with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the
+[GNU Lesser General Public
+License](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html) instead of this
+License.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/COPYRIGHT b/COPYRIGHT
index c94f4fd5b..93066a75c 100644
--- a/COPYRIGHT
+++ b/COPYRIGHT
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ This code is released under the [GPL], version 2 or later:
    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
    Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
 
-The GNU General Public License is available in the file COPYING in
+The GNU General Public License is available in the file COPYING.md in
 the source distribution.  On Debian systems, the complete text of the
 GPL can be found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL`.
 
diff --git a/appveyor.yml b/appveyor.yml
index e7728dba5..a7113c829 100644
--- a/appveyor.yml
+++ b/appveyor.yml
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ after_test:
   - cd windows
   - 7z a "pandoc.zip" pandoc.exe
   - .\pandoc.exe -s -S --toc ..\MANUAL.txt -o MANUAL.html
-  - .\pandoc.exe -s -S ..\COPYING -o COPYING.rtf
+  - .\pandoc.exe -s -S ..\COPYING.md -o COPYING.rtf
   - copy ..\COPYRIGHT COPYRIGHT.txt
   - |
       set VERSION=
diff --git a/make_osx_package.sh b/make_osx_package.sh
index 293599d47..200702a0a 100755
--- a/make_osx_package.sh
+++ b/make_osx_package.sh
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ cp man/pandoc.1 $DEST/share/man/man1/
 chown -R $ME:staff $DIST
 
 echo Copying license...
-$OSX/pandoc --data data -t html5 -s COPYING -o $RESOURCES/license.html
+$OSX/pandoc --data data -t html5 -s COPYING.md -o $RESOURCES/license.html
 
 # Removing executable signing because of a problem that arose in El Capitan
 # "source=obsolete resource envelope"
diff --git a/pandoc.cabal b/pandoc.cabal
index ccc7df47a..57a8f6020 100644
--- a/pandoc.cabal
+++ b/pandoc.cabal
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ Version:         1.17.3
 Cabal-Version:   >= 1.10
 Build-Type:      Custom
 License:         GPL
-License-File:    COPYING
+License-File:    COPYING.md
 Copyright:       (c) 2006-2016 John MacFarlane
 Author:          John MacFarlane <jgm@berkeley.edu>
 Maintainer:      John MacFarlane <jgm@berkeley.edu>
diff --git a/windows/make-windows-installer.bat b/windows/make-windows-installer.bat
index 8bc978d6e..f0c36e545 100644
--- a/windows/make-windows-installer.bat
+++ b/windows/make-windows-installer.bat
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ if %errorlevel% neq 0 exit /b %errorlevel%
 for /f "delims=" %%a in ('stack path --local-bin-path') do @set BINPATH=%%a

 %BINPATH%\pandoc.exe -s -S --toc ..\MANUAL.txt -o MANUAL.html

 if %errorlevel% neq 0 exit /b %errorlevel%

-%BINPATH%\pandoc.exe -s ..\COPYING -t rtf -S -o COPYING.rtf

+%BINPATH%\pandoc.exe -s ..\COPYING.md -t rtf -S -o COPYING.rtf

 if %errorlevel% neq 0 exit /b %errorlevel%

 copy ..\COPYRIGHT COPYRIGHT.txt

 for /f "tokens=1-2 delims= " %%a in ('%BINPATH%\pandoc.exe --version') do (