I want to focus on the choice of licenses for the project in this article, as well as the specifics of utilizing projects with various licenses.
When utilizing distinct open-source programs, developers frequently disregard licenses. For our applications and programs, we frequently employ projects, parts of projects, or services without considering how they can effect the future. Should you retain the copyright? What conditions and obligations apply to various licenses? I want to focus on the choice of licenses for the project in this article, as well as the specifics of utilizing projects with various licenses. The term "project" refers to an open-source project or repository here and below.
Disclaimer:
This manual's information shouldn't be regarded as legal advice.
With the BSD Zero Clause license, you have more flexibility than with the BSD 2-Clause license because you are not required to include the copyright notice, license language, or disclaimer in the software's source code or binary form.
- Commercial use
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- Private use
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A form of open software license that does not require the release of source code for derivative works is the Academic Free License. Copyright and patents are expressly granted and the author's trademark rights are reserved.
- Commercial use
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- Patent use
- Private use
- License and copyright notice
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This strictest copyleft license grant is contingent on access under the same license to all source code of the licensed work and to modifications, including larger works incorporating the licensed work. will do. Copyright and license notices must be retained. Contributors expressly grant patent rights in their contributions. Modified versions of all source code must be published if they are used to provide services over a network.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Network use is distribution
- Same license
- State changes
- Liability
- Warranty
A permissive license that requires maintenance of copyright and license notices as one of its key requirements. Contributors expressly grant patent rights in their contributions. All Superior Works, Modified Works, and Licensed Works are permitted to be distributed without the original source code, subject to various restrictions.
- Commercial use
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- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
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The Artistic License, which is very popular in the Perl community, requires that modified versions of the software not prevent users from running the standard version.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
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- Patent use
- Private use
- License and copyright notice
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- Trademark use
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A permissive license that comes in two varieties: BSD 2-clause and BSD 3-clause. Both are slightly different from the MIT license.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
- License and copyright notice
- Liability
- Warranty
A variant of the BSD 3-clause license that does not explicitly grant patent rights.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
- License and copyright notice
- Liability
- Patent use
- Warranty
A permissive license similar to BSD's two-clause license, but with a third clause that prohibits others from using the name of the copyright owner or its contributors to endorse derivative works without written consent. increase.
- Commercial use
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- Modification
- Private use
- License and copyright notice
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A permissive license similar to BSD's three-clause license, but with an "advertisement clause" that requires attribution of the original source of all advertising material.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
- License and copyright notice
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A simple and permissive license that requires respect only for copyright and license notices for source distributions (not binary distributions). Licensed Works, Modified Works, and Larger Works may be distributed without source code under different terms.
- Commercial use
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- Private use
- License and copyright notice for source
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Almost any use is permitted with credit and license. Often used for media resources and educational materials. The most common license for open access scholarly publications. Not recommended as software.
- Commercial use
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- Private use
- License and copyright notice
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- Patent use
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Similar to CC-BY-4.0 but requires derivatives be distributed under the same or a similar, compatible license. Frequently used for media assets and educational materials. A previous version is the default license for Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. Not recommended for software.
- Commercial use
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- Private use
- License and copyright notice
- Same license
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- Patent use
- Trademark use
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The Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain Dedication waives copyright interest in a work you've created and dedicates it to the world-wide public domain. Use CC0 to opt out of copyright entirely and ensure your work has the widest reach. As with the Unlicense and typical software licenses, CC0 disclaims warranties. CC0 is very similar to the Unlicense.
- Commercial use
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- Modification
- Private use
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- Patent use
- Trademark use
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Strong copyleft license made by three French public research organisations, CEA, CNRS, and Inria, compatible with AGPL-3.0, EUPL-1.1, and GPL-2.0, or later versions of those licenses.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Network use is distribution
- Same license
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Permissive license for hardware design. The condition only requires retention of notice. Contributors expressly grant patent rights. Licensed, modified, and larger works may be distributed under separate terms and without attribution.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
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This strong, interrelated Hardware Design License permission ensures that the full source of the Licensed Work and Modifications, including the Main Work that uses the Licensed Work, are made available under the same license. condition. The memo must be saved. Contributors expressly grant patent rights.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Same license
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- Warranty
This weak cross-licensing grant is contingent on providing the full source of the Licensed Work and Modifications under the same license. The memo must be saved. Contributors expressly grant patent rights. However, a Larger Work that uses the Licensed Work through an interface provided by the Licensed Work may be distributed without the Source of that Larger Work under different terms.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Same license (library)
- State changes
- Liability
- Warranty
Educational Community License Version 2.0 ("ECL") consists of the Apache 2.0 License as modified to change the scope of the patent grant in Section 3 to specifically address the needs of the educational community using that license. increase.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
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This commercially-friendly copyleft license provides the ability to license binaries commercially. Modern Royalty Free Patent Licensing. The linked work may use other licenses, including commercial licenses.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Same license
- Liability
- Warranty
This commercially-friendly copyleft license provides the ability to license binaries commercially. Modern Royalty Free Patent Licensing. Linked works may use other licenses, including commercial licenses.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Same license
- Liability
- Warranty
The European Union Public License (EUPL) is a copyleft license for free/open source software created on the initiative of and approved by the European Commission in the 22 official languages of the European Union.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Network use is distribution
- Same license
- State changes
- Liability
- Trademark use
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The European Union Public License (EUPL) is a copyleft license for free/open source software created on the initiative of and approved by the European Commission in the 23 official languages of the European Union.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Network use is distribution
- Same license
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- Liability
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A copyleft license for software documentation.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Same license
- State changes
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- Warranty
The GNU GPL is the most widely used free software license and is subject to strict copyleft requirements. If you distribute a derivative work, you must make the source code for that work available under the same license. There are several variants of the GNU GPL, each with different requirements.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Same license
- State changes
- Liability
- Warranty
This powerful copyleft license grant requires that the full source code of the Licensed Work and modifications, including larger works that use the Licensed Work, be made available under the same license. Copyright and license notices must be preserved. Contributors expressly grant patent rights.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Same license
- State changes
- Liability
- Warranty
A permissive license allows users to do anything with the code with proper attribution and no warranty. The ISC license is functionally equivalent to the BSD 2 clauses and the MIT license, with some obsolete language removed.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
-License and copyright notice
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The GNU LGPL is primarily used for software libraries, and derivative works must be licensed under the same license. However, this does not apply to works that merely refer to it. The GNU LGPL has two commonly used versions.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Same license (library)
- State changes
- Liability
- Warranty
This copyleft license grant requires that the complete source code of the licensed work and modifications be made available under the same license or the GNU GPLv3. Copyright and license notices must be preserved. Contributors expressly grant patent rights. However, a Larger Work that uses the Licensed Work through an interface provided by the Licensed Work may be distributed without the source code of that Larger Work under different terms.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Same license (library)
- State changes
- Liability
- Warranty
The LaTeX Project Public License (LPPL) is the primary license under which the LaTeX kernel and basic LaTeX packages are distributed.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- State changes
- Liability
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It's a short, simple, permissive license with no restrictions, and doesn't require respect for copyright or license notices. Licensed Works, Modified Works, and Larger Works may be distributed without Source Code under different terms.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
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- Private use
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A short and simple permissive license with conditions only requiring preservation of copyright and license notices. Licensed works, modifications, and larger works may be distributed under different terms and without source code.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
- License and copyright notice
- Liability
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This weak copyleft license grant is contingent on the source code of the licensed files and modifications to those files being made available under the same license (or one of the GNU licenses, as the case may be) . Copyright and license notices must be preserved. Contributors expressly grant patent rights. However, a Larger Work that uses the Licensed Work may be distributed under different terms and without the source code of files added to the Larger Work.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Same license (file)
- Liability
- Trademark use
- Warranty
Patented open source license.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
- License and copyright notice
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- Warranty
An open source patent granting license similar to the Microsoft Public License. with the additional condition that the source code for all derived files is provided under this license.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Same license (file)
- Trademark use
- Warranty
A permissive license similar to the Apache license, but explicitly states that it does not grant trademark rights. Mulan Permissive Software License is the first open source license approved by OSI in Chinese and English.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
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The University of Illinois/NCSA Open Source License (UIUC License) is a permissive free software license based on the MIT/X11 License and the BSD 3-Clause License. Its terms include a commitment to respect copyright and license notices in both source and binary distributions, and a prohibition on using the author's or project organization's name to advertise or endorse derivative works.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
- License and copyright notice
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The Open Database License (ODbL) is a license agreement designed to allow users to freely share, modify, and use databases while maintaining that freedom for others.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Same license
- Liability
- Patent use
- Trademark use
- Warranty
The Open Font License (OFL) is administered by SIL International. It seeks to create a compromise between free software and the values of the type design community. It is used by almost all open source font projects such as Adobe, Google, and Mozilla.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
- License and copyright notice
- Same license
- Liability
- Warranty
OSL 3.0 is a copyleft license that does not require cross-licensing for linked works. It also provides for an express grant of patent rights from contributors to users, with an opt-out provision in effect if users file a claim of patent infringement.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Network use is distribution
- Same license
- State changes
- Liability
- Trademark use
- Warranty
A very short BSD-style license used exclusively for PostgreSQL.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
- License and copyright notice
- Liability
- Warranty
An unconditional license to dedicate the work to the public domain. Unlicensed works, modifications, and larger works may be distributed without source code under other terms.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
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Permissive OSI and FSF approved GPL compatible license. We expressly allow attribution by copyright notice and simple link only, not the full text of the license. Includes express grant of patent rights. Licensed works and modifications may be distributed under separate terms without source code. You can also optionally extend the patent grant to a larger work so that it can be used as a contributor license agreement.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Patent use
- Private use
- License and copyright notice
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- Warranty
There are no restrictions on the use or distribution of unmodified copies of the software. Portions of the software may be transferred, but the license text must always be included. Some restrictions apply to the modified version. The license is GPL compatible, allowing you to compile and distribute software using GPL libraries.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
- Disclose source
- License and copyright notice
- Same license
- State changes
The simplest license. This allows the user to do whatever they want with the code.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
GPL-compatible short permissive license. Modified source versions should be marked as such.
- Commercial use
- Distribution
- Modification
- Private use
- License and copyright notice for source
- State changes
- Liability
- Warranty
Major contents of this page are derived from choosealicense.