diff --git a/COPYING b/COPYING
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..500ad5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/COPYING
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2.
+
+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, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General
+Public License version 2 can be found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2'.