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Choosing an Open Source Software License
Pat Hawks
September 18, 2015
Transcript
11 slides
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What is Open Source software? • Can be freely -
accessed - used - changed - shared -
Can Open Source software be used for commercial purposes? •
YES • All Open Source software can be used for commercial purpose; the Open Source Definition guarantees this. • You can even sell Open Source software. -
Can I strip out the copyrights on Open Source code
and put in my own? • NO • This isn't even about Open Source, really: in general, you should not remove a valid copyright notice, no matter what license it specifies. Copyright notices are legal notices; they are also a source of information about the provenance of source code, and if that information is stripped out, recipients of downstream copies have no easy way to rediscover it. -
MIT License • Simple & Permissive • The MIT License
is a permissive license that is short and to the point. It lets people do anything they want with your code as long as they provide attribution back to you and don’t hold you liable. • jQuery and Rails use the MIT License. -
MIT License Required •License and copyright notice Permitted •Commercial Use
•Distribution •Modification •Private Use •Sublicensing Forbidden •Hold Liable -
General Public License • Sharing Improvements • The GPL is
a copyleft license that requires anyone who distributes your code or a derivative work to make the source available under the same terms. • Linux, Git, and WordPress use the GPL. -
General Public License Required •Disclose Source •License and copyright notice
•State Changes Permitted •Commercial Use •Distribution •Modification •Private Use •Patent Grant Forbidden •Hold Liable •Sublicensing -
Creative Commons License • Great for documentation • A Creative
Commons License lets people do anything they want with your content as long as they provide attribution back to you. • This presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons License, built from other content licensed under a Creative Commons License -
Creative Commons License Required •License and copyright notice •State Changes
Permitted •Commercial Use •Distribution •Modification •Private Use Forbidden •Hold Liable -
Choosing an Open Source Software License Some material taken from
ChooseALicense.com Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License Some material taken from OpenSource.org Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Any original content Dual licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License and the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License