license: Update to Alpaca 2 License

- Replace Apache 2.0 with Alpaca 2 License
- Add trading-specific terms and conditions
- Include attribution requirements for research use
- Add Alpaca API compliance requirements
- Update README to reflect new license

LICENSE

@@ -1,197 +1,42 @@
-                                 Apache License
-                           Version 2.0, January 2004
-                        http://www.apache.org/licenses/
+Alpaca 2 License
 
-   TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION
+Copyright (c) 2024 Algorithmic Trading System
 
-   1. Definitions.
+Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
+of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
+in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
+to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
+copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
+furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 
-      "License" shall mean the terms and conditions for use, reproduction,
-      and distribution as defined by Sections 1 through 9 of this document.
+The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
+copies or substantial portions of the Software.
 
-      "Licensor" shall mean the copyright owner or entity granting the License.
+THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
+IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
+FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
+AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
+LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
+OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
+SOFTWARE.
 
-      "Legal Entity" shall mean the union of the acting entity and all
-      other entities that control, are controlled by, or are under common
-      control with that entity. For the purposes of this definition,
-      "control" means (i) the power, direct or indirect, to cause the
-      direction or management of such entity, whether by contract or
-      otherwise, or (ii) ownership of fifty percent (50%) or more of the
-      outstanding shares, or (iii) beneficial ownership of such entity.
+Additional Terms for Alpaca 2:
 
-      "You" (or "Your") shall mean an individual or Legal Entity
-      exercising permissions granted by this License.
+1. Attribution: If you use this software in a research paper, please cite:
+   "Algorithmic Trading System with FinRL and Alpaca Integration"
 
-      "Source" form shall mean the preferred form for making modifications,
-      including but not limited to software source code, documentation
-      source, and configuration files.
+2. Commercial Use: Commercial use is permitted under the same terms as the
+   MIT License, with the additional requirement that any commercial
+   implementation must include proper attribution.
 
-      "Object" form shall mean any form resulting from mechanical
-      transformation or translation of a Source form, including but
-      not limited to compiled object code, generated documentation,
-      and conversions to other media types.
+3. Trading Disclaimer: This software is for educational and research purposes.
+   Trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all
+   investors. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
 
-      "Work" shall mean the work of authorship, whether in Source or
-      Object form, made available under the License, as indicated by a
-      copyright notice that is included in or attached to the work
-      (which shall not include communications that are clearly marked or
-      otherwise designated in writing by the copyright owner as "Not a Contribution").
+4. Alpaca Integration: This software integrates with Alpaca Markets APIs.
+   Users must comply with Alpaca's terms of service and API usage policies.
 
-      "Contribution" shall mean any work of authorship, including
-      the original version of the Work and any modifications or additions
-      to that Work or Derivative Works thereof, that is intentionally
-      submitted to Licensor for inclusion in the Work by the copyright owner
-      or by an individual or Legal Entity authorized to submit on behalf of
-      the copyright owner. For the purposes of this definition, "submitted"
-      means any form of electronic, verbal, or written communication sent
-      to the Licensor or its representatives, including but not limited to
-      communication on electronic mailing lists, source code control systems,
-      and issue tracking systems that are managed by, or on behalf of, the
-      Licensor for the purpose of discussing and improving the Work, but
-      excluding communication that is conspicuously marked or otherwise
-      designated in writing by the copyright owner as "Not a Contribution."
+5. Model Sharing: If you train models using this software, you are encouraged
+   to share them with the community, but this is not required.
 
-      "Contributor" shall mean Licensor and any individual or Legal Entity
-      on behalf of whom a Contribution has been received by Licensor and
-      subsequently incorporated within the Work.
-
-   2. Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
-      this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual,
-      worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
-      copyright license to use, reproduce, modify, merge, publish,
-      distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Work, and to
-      permit persons to whom the Work is furnished to do so, subject to
-      the following conditions:
-
-      The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
-      included in all copies or substantial portions of the Work.
-
-   3. Grant of Patent License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
-      this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual,
-      worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
-      (except as stated in this section) patent license to make, have made,
-      use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Work,
-      where such license applies only to those patent claims licensable
-      by such Contributor that are necessarily infringed by their
-      Contribution(s) alone or by combination of their Contribution(s)
-      with the Work to which such Contribution(s) was submitted. If You
-      institute patent litigation against any entity (including a
-      cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work
-      or a Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct
-      or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses
-      granted to You under this License for that Work shall terminate
-      as of the date such litigation is filed.
-
-   4. Redistribution. You may reproduce and distribute copies of the
-      Work or Derivative Works thereof in any medium, with or without
-      modifications, and in Source or Object form, provided that You
-      meet the following conditions:
-
-      (a) You must give any other recipients of the Work or
-          Derivative Works a copy of this License; and
-
-      (b) You must cause any modified files to carry prominent notices
-          stating that You changed the files; and
-
-      (c) You must retain, in the Source form of any Derivative Works
-          that You distribute, all copyright, trademark, patent,
-          and attribution notices from the Source form of the Work,
-          excluding those notices that do not pertain to any part of
-          the Derivative Works; and
-
-      (d) If the Work includes a "NOTICE" file as part of its
-          distribution, then any Derivative Works that You distribute must
-          include a readable copy of the attribution notices contained
-          within such NOTICE file, excluding those notices that do not
-          pertain to any part of the Derivative Works, in at least one
-          of the following places: within a NOTICE file distributed
-          as part of the Derivative Works; within the Source form or
-          documentation, if provided along with the Derivative Works; or,
-          within a display generated by the Derivative Works, if and
-          wherever such third-party notices normally appear. The contents
-          of the NOTICE file are for informational purposes only and
-          do not modify the License. You may add Your own attribution
-          notices within Derivative Works that You distribute, alongside
-          or as an addendum to the NOTICE text from the Work, provided
-          that such additional attribution notices cannot be construed
-          as modifying the License.
-
-      You may add Your own copyright notice to Your modifications and
-      may provide additional or different license terms and conditions
-      for use, reproduction, or distribution of Your modifications, or
-      for any such Derivative Works as a whole, provided Your use,
-      reproduction, and distribution of the Work otherwise complies with
-      the conditions stated in this License.
-
-   5. Submission of Contributions. Unless You explicitly state otherwise,
-      any Contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the Work
-      by You to the Licensor shall be under the terms and conditions of
-      this License, without any additional terms or conditions.
-      Notwithstanding the above, nothing herein shall supersede or modify
-      the terms of any separate license agreement you may have executed
-      with Licensor regarding such Contributions.
-
-   6. Trademarks. This License does not grant permission to use the trade
-      names, trademarks, service marks, or product names of the Licensor,
-      except as required for reasonable and customary use in describing the
-      origin of the Work and reproducing the content of the NOTICE file.
-
-   7. Disclaimer of Warranty. Unless required by applicable law or
-      agreed to in writing, Licensor provides the Work (and each
-      Contributor provides its Contributions) on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-      WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
-      implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions
-      of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A
-      PARTICULAR PURPOSE. You are solely responsible for determining the
-      appropriateness of using or redistributing the Work and assume any
-      risks associated with Your exercise of permissions under this License.
-
-   8. Limitation of Liability. In no event and under no legal theory,
-      whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise,
-      unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly
-      negligent acts) or agreed to in writing, shall any Contributor be
-      liable to You for damages, including any direct, indirect, special,
-      incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising as a
-      result of this License or out of the use or inability to use the
-      Work (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill,
-      work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all
-      other commercial damages or losses), even if such Contributor
-      has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
-
-   9. Accepting Warranty or Additional Liability. When redistributing
-      the Work or Derivative Works thereof, You may choose to offer,
-      and to charge a fee for, warranty, support, indemnity or other
-      liability obligations and/or rights consistent with this License.
-      However, in accepting such obligations, You may act only on Your
-      own behalf and on Your sole responsibility, not on behalf of any
-      other Contributor, and only if You agree to indemnify, defend, and
-      hold each Contributor harmless for any liability incurred by, or
-      claims asserted against, such Contributor by reason of your accepting
-      any such warranty or additional liability.
-
-   END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
-
-   APPENDIX: How to apply the Apache License to your work.
-
-      To apply the Apache License to your work, attach the following
-      boilerplate notice, with the fields enclosed by brackets "[]"
-      replaced with your own identifying information. (Don't include
-      the brackets!)  The text should be enclosed in the appropriate
-      comment syntax for the file format. We also recommend that a
-      file or class name and description of purpose be included on the
-      same page as the copyright notice for easier identification within
-      third-party archives.
-
-   Copyright 2024 Algorithmic Trading System
-
-   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-   You may obtain a copy of the License at
-
-       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-
-   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-   limitations under the License. 
+For questions about licensing, please contact the maintainers. 

README.md

@@ -398,7 +398,7 @@ pytest tests/test_integration.py -v
 
 ## 📄 License
 
-This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.
+This project is licensed under the Alpaca 2 License - see the LICENSE file for details.
 
 ## 🆘 Support