License
lastmod 2026-04-12created 2014-05-0349 edits
A license (US: License, UK: Licence) is the granting by an administrative agency of the qualification to do a particular thing. In fields that require a license, people without one legally cannot do the work, whereas with a certification, not having one does not necessarily mean you are legally barred from doing the work. In some cases, after obtaining a certification, you must separately be issued the corresponding license before you can perform the work.
Category
List of License
License comparison table
| Name | Permission to copy/distribute/modify | Include a copy of the license | Retain copyright notice or Attribution notice | Obligation and scope of providing source code on distribution | Other |
| O | O | O | Also written as X11 License or X License. |
Notes on each item
- Permission to copy, distribute, and modify
- Include a copy of the license on distribution
- Retain copyright notice or Attribution notice
- Obligation and scope of providing source code on distribution
- Permission to create Larger Works and distribute under other licenses
- Notice of modifications when modifying
- Grant of explicit patent license
- License termination if the licensee files a patent lawsuit
- Restrictions on use of names, trademarks, and trade names
- Disclaimer of warranty
- Limitation of liability
Notes
- The scope of contributors also includes the original developer
- Reciprocity (Reciprociy) in distribution refers to a clause requiring that, when code under the license is distributed to a third party, it be distributed under the same license as the original; it is also commonly called a Copyleft clause.
- A Larger Work means a work that combines all or part of the code under the license with code not subject to this license.
- A blank cell means the license does not explicitly mention the item. However, even without a mention, it may be interpreted as implicitly permitted or prohibited, so please consult a relevant expert.
Comparison of major licenses
- GPL, AGPL, MPL… open-source SW licenses at a glance 1
- OLIS - License comparison table
- Old version: Template:License:TermsTable
| License name | Permission to copy, distribute, and modify | Include a copy of the license on distribution | Retain copyright notice or Attribution notice | Obligation and scope of providing source code on distribution | Permission to create Larger Works and distribute under other licenses | Notice of modifications | Grant of explicit patent license | License termination if the licensee files a patent lawsuit | Restrictions on use of names, trademarks, and trade names | Disclaimer of warranty | Limitation of liability |
| Academic Free License | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | ||
| Adaptive Public License | O | O | O | Per module | O | O | Optional | Optional | O | O | O |
| Affero GNU General Public License 3.0 | O | O | O | Entire code, including network services | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Apache License 1.1 | O | O | Conditional | O | O | O | |||||
| Apache License 2.0 | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | ||
| Apple Public Source License | O | O | O | Per file | O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| Artistic License 1.0 | O | O | O | O | O | ||||||
| Artistic License 2.0 | O | O | O (standard version) | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Attribution Assurance License | O | O | O | Conditional | O | O | O | ||||
| Boost Software License | O | O | O | Conditional | O | O | |||||
| Common Development and Distribution license | O | O | O | Per file | O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| Common Public Attribution License 1.0 | O | O | O | Per file | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Common Public License 1.0 | O | O | O | Per module | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Computer Associates Trusted Open Source License 1.1 | O | O | O | Per-module derivative works | O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| CUA Office Public License Version 1.0 | O | O | O | Per file | O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| Eclipse Public License | O | O | O | Per module | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Educational Community License | O | O | O | Conditional | O | O | O | O | |||
| Eiffel Forum License 1.0 | O | O | O | Conditional | O | O | |||||
| Eiffel Forum License 2.0 | O | O | Conditional | O | O | ||||||
| Entessa Public License | O | O | Conditional | O | O | O | |||||
| EU DataGrid Software License | O | O | Conditional | O | O | O | |||||
| Fair License | O | O | O | ||||||||
| Frameworx License | O | O | O | O | O | O | |||||
| GNU General Public License 2.0 | O | O | O | Entire code | Conditional | O | O | ||||
| GNU General Public License 3.0 | O | O | O | Entire code | O | O | O | O | O | ||
| GNU Lesser General Public License 2.0 | O | O | O | Derivative works | O | O | O | O | |||
| GNU Lesser General Public License 3.0 | O | O | O | Derivative works | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer | O | O | Conditional | O | O | ||||||
| IBM Public License | O | O | O | Per module | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Intel Open Source License | O | O | Conditional | O | O | ||||||
| ISC License | O | O | O | Conditional | O | O | O | O | |||
| Jabber Open Source License | O | O | O | Per file | O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| Lucent Public License(Plan9) | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | ||
| Lucent Public License 1.02 | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | ||
| Microsoft Public License | O | O | O | Conditional | O | O | O | O | |||
| Microsoft Reciprocal License | O | O | O | Per file | O | O | O | O | O | ||
| MirOS License | O | O | O | O | O | ||||||
| MIT License | O | O | O | Conditional | O | O | |||||
| MITRE Collaborative Virtual Workspace License | O | O | O | Conditional | O | ||||||
| Molosoto Open Source License 0.9.1 | O | O | O | Per file | O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| Mozilla Public License 1.0 | O | O | O | Per file | O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| Mozilla Public License 1.1 | O | O | O | Per file | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Multics License | O | O | O | ||||||||
| NASA Open Source Agreement 1.3 | O | O | O | Derivative works | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Naumen Public License | O | O | Conditional | O | O | O | |||||
| Nethack General Public License | O | O | O | O | O | ||||||
| New and Simplified BSD License | O | O | O | Conditional | O | O | O | ||||
| Nokia Open Source License | O | O | O | Per file | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Non-Profit Open Software License 3.0 | O | O | Derivative works | O | O | O | O | O | O | ||
| NTP License | O | O | Conditional | O | O | ||||||
| OCLC Research Public License 2.0 | O | O | Per file | O | O | O | O | O | |||
| Open Software License | O | O | Derivative works | O | O | O | O | O | O | ||
| PHP License | O | O | Conditional | O | O | O | |||||
| Python License | O | O | O | O | O | O | |||||
| Python Software Foundation License | O | O | O | O | O | O | |||||
| RealNetworks Public Source License 1.0 | O | O | O | Per file | O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| Reciprocal Public License 1.0 | O | O | O | Per-file derivative works | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Reciprocal Public License 1.5 | O | O | O | Per-file derivative works | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Ricoh Source Code Public License | O | O | O | Per file | O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| Simple Public License 2.0 | O | O | O | Derivative works | O | O | O | O | |||
| Sleepycat License | O | O | Bundled SW | O | O | ||||||
| Sun Industry Standards Source License | O | O | O | Per file | O | O | O | O | O | O | |
| Sun Public License | O | O | O | Per file | O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| Sybase Open Watcom Public License 1.0 | O | O | O | Per file | O | O | O | O | O | O | O |
| The Qt Public License | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | ||||
| University of Illinois/NCSA Open Source License | O | O | Conditional | O | O | O | |||||
| Vovida Software License 1.0 | O | O | Conditional | O | O | O | |||||
| W3C License | O | O | O | Conditional | O | O | O | O | |||
| wxWindows Library License | O | O | O | Derivative works | O | O | O | ||||
| The X.Net, Inc. License | O | O | O | O | |||||||
| Zlib/Libpng License | O | O | O | Conditional | O | O | O | ||||
| Zope Public License | O | O | Conditional | O | O | O | O | ||||
GPL compatibility
| Open source software license | GPL 2.0 compatible | GPL 3.0 compatible |
| Academic Free License | No | No |
| Affero GNU General Public License version 3.0 | No | Yes |
| Apache License version 1.0 | No | No |
| Apache License version 1.1 | No | No |
| Apache License version 2.0 | No | Yes |
| Apple Public Source License version 1.x | No | No |
| Apple Public Source License version 2.0 | No | No |
| Artistic License 1.0 | No | No |
| Clarified Artistic License (draft 2.0) | Yes | Yes |
| Artistic License 2.0 | Yes | Yes |
| Berkeley Database License | Yes | Yes |
| original BSD license | No | No |
| modified BSD license | Yes | Yes |
| Boost Software License | Yes | Yes |
| CeCILL | Yes | Yes |
| Common Development and Distribution License | No | No |
| Common Public License | No | No |
| Creative Commons licenses (Tags: by &sa) | No | No |
| Creative Commons licenses (Tags: nc &nd) | No | No |
| Cryptix General License | Yes | Yes |
| Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License (WTFPL) | Yes | Yes |
| Eclipse Public License | No | No |
| Educational Community License | No | Yes |
| Eiffel Forum License version 2 | Yes | Yes |
| Fair License | Yes | Yes |
| GNU General Public License 2.0 | Yes | No |
| GNU General Public License 3.0 | No | Yes |
| GNU Lesser General Public License | Yes | Yes |
| Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement | No | No |
| IBM Public License | No | No |
| Intel Open Source License | Yes | Yes |
| ISC license | Yes | Yes |
| LaTeX Project Public License | No | No |
| Microsoft Public License | No | No |
| Microsoft Reciprocal License | No | No |
| MIT license | Yes | Yes |
| Mozilla Public License version 1.1 | No | No |
| Mozilla Public License version 2.0 | Yes | Yes |
| Netscape Public License | No | No |
| Open Software License | No | No |
| OpenSSL license | No | No |
| PHP License | No | No |
| POV-Ray-License | No | No |
| Python Software Foundation License 2.0.1, 2.1.1 and newer | Yes | Yes |
| Q Public License | No | No |
| Sun Industry Standards Source License | No | No |
| Sun Public License | No | No |
| W3C Software Notice and License | Yes | Yes |
| XFree86 1.1 License | No | Yes |
| zlib/libpng license | Yes | Yes |
| Zope Public License version 1.0 | No | No |
| Zope Public License version 2.0 | Yes | Yes |
License compatibility
- Wikipedia (en) License compatibility
- Open source software for business - Chapter 4 License compatibility 2
- [Recommended] GPL-Compatible Free Software Licenses (licenses compatible with GPL, etc.)
License compatibility is a problem that arises when the different licenses applied to multiple works contain conditions that make it impossible to combine the source code or content of those works to create a new work.
Example
If one software package's license has the condition "modified versions must mention the developer in all advertising materials," and another software package has the condition "modified versions may not include additional attribution requirements," then the two licenses cannot be satisfied at the same time, so a combination of the two packages cannot be legally distributed without direct permission from the author of at least one of them. Therefore, the licenses of these two packages are incompatible.
Open source licenses are not necessarily compatible with each other, so if open source code is distributed under different licenses, it may be impossible to legally mix or combine it. For example, software that mixes code released under the Mozilla Public License version 1.1 with code released under the GNU General Public License cannot be distributed without violating one of the two licenses' terms, even though both licenses have been approved by the Open Source Initiative and the Free Software Foundation.
Choosing an open source license
- Choose an open source license - A GitHub guide for choosing a license depending on your situation
- If you want to work with a community: APL, GPLv3, ISC, MIT..
- When contributing to or extending a project, use the existing project's license as is
- Data/media: CC0-1.0, CC-BY-4.0, CC-BY-SA-4.0
- Fonts : SIL Open Font License 1.1
- GNU AGPLv3, GNU LGPLv3, MPL 2.0, Boost Software License 1.0, The Unlicense
How to safely open-source internal tools
- How to safely open-source internal software - Some best practices
- Scan the repo for secrets
- Convert internal names/emails to public ones
- Filter emails out of the git history
FAQ
- What does "as-is" mean?
- Wikipedia (en) As is
- "As is" is a legal term used to disclaim some implied warranties for an item being sold.
- "As is" is a legal term used to disclaim (legal) liability for any implied warranties of quality on an item sold.
Projects
- licensepp
- Software licensing done right - license++ is a cross platform software licensing library that uses digital signatures to secure use of your application and its licensing
- Cryptolens
- Cloud-based Software Licensing Platform for .NET and C++, with integrated payments and comprehensive analytics.
Documentation
- Understanding OSS licenses and managing their use
-
OSS_licenses_understanding_and_utilization_management.pdf
- Open source licenses companies should know
-
Open_Source_License_to_know_this_company.zip
- Open source software - License guide 3.0
- https://olis.or.kr/images/egovframework/olisImage/common/OpensourceSW_License_Guide.pdf
-
OpensourceSW_License_Guide.pdf - Also covers Compatibility. Highly recommended!
- Open source software - License guide 1.0 (Beginner)
-
Open_source_software_-license_guide-1.0-_Beginner.pdf
- Open source software - License guide 2.0 (Intermediate)
-
Open_source_software_-license_guide-2.0-_Intermediate.pdf
See also
Favorite site
- Wikipedia (en) Description of License
- [Recommended] Open Source SW License Information System
- [Important] Open source SW licenses - AGPL that service providers should know 3
- Summary of open source licenses (en) 4
- Summary of open source licenses (ko) 5
- Comparison of major open source licenses (GPL, LGPL, BSD, MPL, QPL, EGP, Apache) 6 <- Covers MPL; included as a summary.
- Comparison of GPL and LGPL
- Open source license comparison material 7
- Explanation of GPL and LGPL
- [Recommended] KLDP Open Source Software License Guide 8
- Gskinner source code license - translation 9
- Open Source License summary 10
- Meetup : TOAST Cloud - Background and history of open source licenses
References
-
Bloter.net-OpenSource_Sw_license.pdf ↩
-
XwMOOC_-_Open_source_software_for_business.pdf ↩
-
About_opensource_sw_license_agpl.pdf ↩
-
Codeproject-licenses.pdf ↩
-
Opensource-licenses.pdf ↩
-
Compare_major_opensource_license.pdf ↩
-
Compare_OpenSource_License.pdf ↩
-
KLDPWiki-OpenSource_Software_License_Guide.pdf ↩
-
CODEONWORT-gskinner-sourcecode-license.pdf ↩
-
Enterkey88-abstract-open_source_license.pdf ↩