diff --git a/COPYING b/COPYING
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..112421c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/COPYING
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+
+The Bisquay code and "bsq" modules are
+
+    Copyright 2020-2022 Particular Programs Ltd, Chris Cannam, and
+    others.
+
+    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:
+
+    The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
+    included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+    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 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.
+
+    Except as contained in this notice, the names of the copyright
+    holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote
+    the sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior
+    written authorization.
+
+Please see the individual directories for copyright notes on other
+modules.
+
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4d27fc7..bd38252 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,6 +1,24 @@
 
 # Bisquay
 
+A quixotic compendium of code for audio-processing applications
+written in the [Standard ML](https://smlfamily.github.io/) programming
+language.
+
+ * Bisquay is *quixotic* because SML is not an obvious choice of
+language for this purpose and there is no existing library of
+applicable code to build on. As much as anything, it is an effort to
+escape the rat race.
+
+ * Bisquay is a *compendium* because this repository contains (almost)
+no code, just a [Repoint](https://github.com/cannam/repoint) manifest
+that defines a multitude of modules to pull in as
+subdirectories. Several of these modules are third-party, or were
+originally written for other purposes, while others (with names
+beginning `bsq`) were written specifically for this.
+
+All Bisquay code is licensed under a BSD/MIT or equivalent licence.
+
 ## To build
 
 Requires the Meson build system and either MLton or Poly/ML SML
@@ -36,3 +54,12 @@ The `sml_buildtype` Meson option accepts the following values:
 To build the documentation, run `meson compile -C build doc` after the
 build directory has been configured; then open doc/index.html in a
 browser.
+
+## Author and copyright
+
+The Bisquay code and the `bsq` modules were written by Chris Cannam
+and are Copyright 2020-2022 Particular Programs Ltd, published under
+the MIT/X11 licence. See the file `COPYING` for details.
+
+See the individual directories for copyright notes on the other
+modules.
diff --git a/resources/doc-overview.html b/resources/doc-overview.html
index 464c67f..2487945 100644
--- a/resources/doc-overview.html
+++ b/resources/doc-overview.html
@@ -1,10 +1,9 @@
 
 <div align=center><img src="bisquay.svg" alt="Bisquay" width="30%"></div>
 
-<p><b>Bisquay</b> is a compendium of code for audio processing
-applications, written in the programming
-language <a href="https://smlfamily.github.io/" target=_blank>Standard
-ML</a>.</p>
+<p><b>Bisquay</b> is a compendium of code for audio-processing
+applications, written in the <a href="https://smlfamily.github.io/"
+target=_blank>Standard ML</a> programming language.</p>
 
 <p>Bisquay is a compendium, not a library. The repository itself just
   contains a <a href="https://github.com/cannam/repoint"