# Provenance of Foundation

This file records who has owned Foundation (also known as Foundation Shell),
how ownership passed to the current maintainer, and the conditions attached to
its open-source release.

## Chain of title

| Period | Owner | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 – October 2008 | Dave Batton | Original author. Earliest method headers are dated 2003. |
| October 2008 – 11 September 2026 | Nelson Consulting, Inc. (Walt Nelson) | Acquired all rights from Dave Batton in or about October 2008; the purchase was announced to the developer community on 21 February 2009. |
| 11 September 2026 – present | Wayne Stewart | Deed of Assignment dated 2026-09-11. |

## The Deed of Assignment

On 11 September 2026 Nelson Consulting, Inc. and Walt Nelson (together the
Assignor) assigned to Wayne Stewart (the Assignee), without payment, all right,
title and interest in Foundation in every version, including source code,
forms, resources and documentation, together with the names "Foundation" and
"Foundation Shell", the goodwill attaching to them, and the domain name
foundationshell.com.

The Assignor warranted that it was the sole owner of the rights assigned, that
it had not assigned, exclusively licensed or otherwise encumbered them, and
that every licence previously granted to its customers is non-exclusive.

Nothing in the deed restricts the Assignor, or any existing customer of the
Assignor, from continuing to use the software.

## Conditions of the assignment

The Assignee undertook to:

1. Release the software under an OSI-approved permissive licence (MIT or
   Apache 2.0) by 1 December 2026. The MIT licence was chosen.
2. Permanently retain the names of Dave Batton and Walt Nelson in the credits,
   About box and documentation as the authors of the versions each wrote, and
   keep the modification history intact.
3. Not sell the software or the rights assigned.

Condition 2 is why the `Created by` and `Modified by` lines in method headers,
and the chronology in `aaaMods`, are treated as load-bearing and are never
removed by any automated sweep. Contributors are asked to preserve them.

## The signed instrument

The signed deed is held privately by Wayne Stewart and is not committed to
this repository. It is available on request to anyone with a legitimate need
to verify title, for example a downstream adopter's legal review.

Contact: wayne@open4dshell.com