Rough Guide to Open-Source Licenses
This page is a rough reminder of the key provisions of the most common open source licenses. This
is not legal advice, use at your own risk. Licenses are roughly arranged in order of permissiveness,
most permissive first.
Common Clauses
- Allow copying
- Allow distribution
- Allow changes
- No warranty
Public Domain
- Keep © in source
- Show © in binary
- Keep © in source
- Show © in binary
- Author doesn't endorse
- Keep © in source
- Show © in binary
- Author doesn't endorse
- Ack in advertizing
- Keep © in source
- Mark changes in source
- Provide license
- If attributions provided, provide them
- You get free patent license
- Lose patent license if you sue for patent violation
For changes to the code itself:
- Make source available
- Put under MPL
- Mark changes in source
- Disclose patents
For distributed changes to the code itself:
- Make source available
- Put under LGPL
- Mark changes in source
- Do not charge
- Show © in binary
For any distributed derivative work including the code:
- Make source available
- Put under GPL
- Mark changes in source
- Do not charge
- Show © in binary
For any distributed derivative work including the code:
- Make source available
- Put under GPL
- Mark changes in source
- Do not charge
- Show © in binary
- Provide install information for binaries
- You get free patent license
- If you license patents to anyone, license them to all freely
- Can't be used as anti-circumvention software
- Improved license compatibility
For any derivative work including the code:
- Make source available
- Put under GPL
- Mark changes in source
- Do not charge
- Show © in binary
- Provide install information for binaries
- You get free patent license
- If you license patents to anyone, license them to all freely
- Can't be used as anti-circumvention software
- Improved license compatibility
- Provide source if users communicate with the work
Copyright (c) 2011 David Drysdale
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