Date: 2026-07-12
Hum is licensed under Apache-2.0, which lets anyone use, modify, and redistribute the code freely. Apache-2.0 Section 6 explicitly does not grant rights to the project's name or marks. This policy states, positively, how the "Hum" and "hum-lang" names may and may not be used, so that the code stays open while the identity stays trustworthy.
This is a common pattern: the code is free; the name identifies the official project. Rust, Python, and many others operate the same way.
The protected identifiers are "Hum", "hum-lang", and any confusingly similar name, when used to refer to this programming language, its toolchain, or its official distributions.
You may, without any permission:
- use the Hum software for any purpose, including commercial and closed-source work;
- state truthfully that your project "uses Hum", is "built on Hum", is "compatible with Hum", or "works with Hum";
- write and publish books, tutorials, courses, and articles about Hum;
- distribute unmodified copies of the official Hum toolchain.
Please do not, without written permission from Ocean Bennett:
- name your own language, fork, toolchain, or product "Hum" or "hum-lang", or any name likely to be confused with them;
- present a modified or forked version in a way that implies it is the official Hum project or was produced by the Hum authors;
- use the Hum name or any logo as your product's primary brand;
- register a domain, package name, social account, or trademark that implies official status.
If you distribute a modified toolchain, give it a clearly different name and state that it is derived from Hum but not the official project. Apache-2.0 Section 4(b) already requires modified files to carry change notices.
The one thing a permissive license cannot do is stop someone from passing off a fork as the original. This policy fills that gap: the software is maximally open, and the name remains a reliable signal of what the official Hum project actually is and who made it.
Questions and permission requests: Ocean Bennett, via the public Hum repository.
This is a policy statement establishing common-law naming expectations. It is not a registered trademark. Nothing here restricts any right granted by the Apache-2.0 license to the software itself.