Open source licenses are licenses that comply with the OSI Open Source Definition.
Before you choose an open source license, it is good to understand what you want to accomplish with your open source project.
You may want to:
- collaborate with contributor communities to develop new features or make improvements to your project
- make the project discoverable and openly available to anyone who want to use and modify it
- reduce duplication of solutions
Depending on your objectives, you might opt for a permissive license or non-permissive (copyleft) license.
The some of the projects hosted on https://github.com/WorldHealthOrganization have reviewed and applied various OSI approved licenses including:
GNU recommend different licenses for different projects, depending mostly on the software's purpose. In general, they recommend using the strongest copyleft license that doesn't interfere with that purpose.
Here's a brief summary of what you need to do to release a program GNU GPL-v3:
✔ Get a copyright disclaimer from the organization's legal team
💡 Hint: Use the the README template if unsure.
✔ Give each file the proper copyright notices. Make sure to clearly identify which versions of the license users can use.
✔ Add a COPYING file with a copy of the GNU GPL-v3.
✔ Put a license notice in each file.
🔘 (Optionally) make the program display a startup notice.
| Type | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Copyleft | Provisions of the original license are imposed on all derivative work. Derivative work can be relicensed under a different copyleft license, but only if it is compatible with the original license. | GPL-v3, AGPL-v3 |
| Weak copyleft | A compromise between strong copyleft and permissive licenses. It allows more flexibility in the provisions such as linking from code licensed under different types of licenses (even non-opensource ones) or incorporating code in larger software (even if it isn't copyleft). | LGPL |
| Permissive | No restriction on licensing for derived works. | Apache-2.0, MIT |
📖 Read more: What is Copyleft?
For every license, there are things you Can, Must, and Cannot do.
ℹ Tip: Browse Software Licenses & Summaries for simple, practical summaries of open source licenses.
It is important to identify the component parts of the software and their licenses in order to ensure compatibility with the licence that you plan to release the software under.
📖 Read more: GPL-Compatible Free Software Licenses
File notices are typically included at start of a software source file, indicating the license reference and copyright notices.
It is recommended to put a LICENSE file at the root folder of the project and include the full text of the project license.
Referring to the actual license within each source file in the project removes ambiguity, especially where multiple licenses are used.
For example:
// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
or
/*
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation.
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.
*/
Copyright notices can follow two models:
✔ the word "Copyright"
✔ the symbol ©
✔ a year or range of years
✔ the name of the individual or legal entity who is the copyright holder
For example:
// Copyright The World Health Organization, 2020 - 2022.
ℹ Note: Include first year of publication along with years in which additional copyrightable content was contributed to the project or file
or
✔ "Copyright Contributors to the _______ Project" or "Copyright The _______ Contributors"
For example:
// Copyright The Health Project Contributors.
- Choose an Open Source License - a site to help developers choose an open source license for the source code.
- The Legal Side of Open Source - open source tips and resources from GitHub.
- REUSE Specification - a specification defines a standardized method for declaring copyright and licensing for software projects. The goal of the specification is to have unambiguous, human- and machine-readable copyright and licensing information for each individual file in a project.
If you have questions, would like to choose an open source license or add file notices to your project, reach out on the WHO open source discussions board.