Various licenses and comments about them gnu project. No claim of suitability, guarantee, or any warranty whatsoever is provided. Source code and executable files can be used in commercial applications. If the author wanted copyleft characteristics, they would almost certainly have used the gpl, not the cpol. The academic free license is a free software license, not copyleft, and incompatible with the gnu gpl.
With law, authors have complete control over their materials. As of 2016, the most popular freesoftware license is the permissive mit license. Use to manage open source licenses, from the creators of tl. Asf 3rd party license policy apache software foundation. The article accompanying the work may not be distributed or. This is a lax, permissive free software license, compatible with the gnu gpl. Some people call this license the mit license, but that term is misleading, since mit has used many licenses for software. Take the complexity of technology and stir in the jargon of the legal system and what do you get. If you do not accept the license, do not use the software. Under most conditions, semirestrictive licenses will be preferred to the extremes. Unfortunately, after you learn a lot about a topic, you tend to subconsciously assume everyone knows what you do. Jun 24, 2006 most copylefted software is issued under the gnu general public license gpl, which was the first copyleft license and by far the most commonly used license for free software. The internet provides a suitable platform for sharing and developing source code and open collaboration results in faster and more efficient development. Software licensing is a complicated topic, but knowing a little about software licensing can help you make sense of all that fine print.
You may not link against third party closed source software. The results suggest that leastrestrictive or noncopyleft license will dominate other types of oss license when a large effort is required to develop derivative software. Copyleft is a distinguishing feature of some free software licenses. Copyleft uses law, but flips it over to serve the opposite of its usual purpose. The main points subject to the terms of the license are. The third license is a standard, copyleftcompliant license. Here you will find an archive of all the copyleft and open source licenses that have been published in the past. Highlights initial oss license choice is dependent on the level of oss developmental efforts. Copyleft software licenses are considered protective or reciprocal, as contrasted with permissive freesoftware licenses. Cpol is defined as code project open license free software license very frequently. A very fast tutorial on open source licenses contact and. The central idea of copyleft is that we give everyone permission to run the program, copy the program, modify the program, and distribute modified versions but. Cpol stands for code project open license free software license.
Jul 29, 2016 copyleft licensing is favourable for software coders. That distinction is found primarily in the gpl, a copyleft license. Free software is software whose source code is freely available to anyone to use for any purpose, including studying, copying, modifying, extending and giving away. Copyleft is free software license requiring authors to permit some of their work to be reproduced. Various licenses and comments about them gnu project free. Further, the license provides a distinction and clarification between the source code available for download and the source codes authors articles and writings about that content. Copyleft is a legal concept drafted by programmer richard stallman, which allows the further distribution and modification of software released under the terms of a copyleft licence, but it does not allow proprietary developers to come and close the released software by not offering access to the source code. It is an example of a powerful copyleft license that requires derived works to be available under the same copyleft. You must provide free copies of the software if you use it. Copyleft is a form of licensing, and can be used to maintain conditions for works ranging from computer software, to documents, to ar. Or even worse, if i should make my own source code available such as with gpl license.
I am not a lawyer, but the license does not say that you are required to distribute any source code. Optimal license choice not necessarily the preferred license of the oss. The cpl is a copyleft license, which means that source code of the licensees modifications must be distributed under the cpl. After opting into the copyleft licence, the source code is readily available, and it allows others to modify and develop the code. There are variations, of coursethe lgpl, for example, is a weak copyleft. For most of its history for 16 years from june 1991 to june 2007 there was really only one version of the gpl, version 2.
The gnu free documentation license is another example of a copyleft non software license. Most copylefted software is issued under the gnu general public license gpl, which was the first copyleft license and by far the most commonly used license for free software. Plant resource manager terms and conditions of open source. This is a lax, permissive noncopyleft free software license, compatible with the gnu gpl. The gnu general public license gpl is the principal copyleft license.
Non copyleft licenses will dominate for large oss projects. B if you bring a patent claim against any contributor over patents that you claim are infringed by the software, your patent license from such contributor to the software ends automatically. A tale of two copyleft licenses while determining the proper methodology and criteria to yield an accurate count remains difficult, the gpl is generally considered one of the most widely used free software licenses. The reason why is not clear to me is because im not sure if by compiling. Copyleft, distinguished from, is the practice of offering people the right to freely distribute copies and modified versions of a work with the stipulation that the same rights be preserved in derivative works created later. We live in a litigious world so you need to protect yourself against those seeking damages against you for problems that may or may not have been caused by your article. A noncopyleft license is simply one that permits the code to be incorporated in a program that is, overall, distributed under some other license even a proprietary one. Copyleft licensing article about copyleft licensing by the. Prior to 2004, the eclipse community used the common public license cpl as the open source license for most of the open source software made available by. Contributor means any person or entity that distributes the program. This license is intended to allow developers to use the source code.
The third license is a standard, copyleft compliant license. This license is intended to allow developers to use the source code and executable files provided as part of the work in any application in any form. Microsoft public license mspl this license governs use of the accompanying software. The affero general public license is a free software license, copyleft, and incompatible with the gnu gpl. When choosing a license, you should define what youre trying to achieve with the license. Its main points subject to the terms of the license are.
Copyleft licenses include several common opensource and free content licenses, such as the gnu general public license gpl and the creative commons attributionsharealike license ccbysa. Copyleft licensing is favourable for software coders. Permissive licenses do not try to guarantee that future versions of the software will remain free and publicly available, in contrast to copyleft licenses, which have reciprocity requirements which try to enforce this. By contrast, the gnu general public license is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a programto make sure it remains free software for all its users. This is a permissive noncopyleft free software license. The following licenses are sorted by the number of conditions, from most gnu agplv3 to none unlicense. Whats the difference between permissive and copyleft licenses.
It was created by michael stutz after his interest in applying gnustyle copyleft to nonsoftware works, which later came to be called open content. It identifies the acceptable licenses for inclusion of thirdparty open source. The use of software licenses for non software work is generally discouraged. Copyleft is a framework that permits ongoing sharing of a published work, with clear permissions that both grant and defend its users freedoms in contrast to other free licenses that grant freedom but dont defend. Some forms of free and open source software foss allow you to use, modify, and distribute the code in your work without direct attribute.
You do not have any proprietary rights in and to the software product. The gnu general public license gnu gpl or simply gpl is a widely used free software license, originally written by richard stallman for the gnu project. As much as open source licensing is about the grant of ip rights, its also grounded in politics, philosophy and public policy. Open source licenses grant permission for anybody to use, modify, and share licensed software for any purpose, subject to conditions preserving the provenance and openness of the software. Copyleft software licenses are not inherently gplcompatible. The code project open license cpol is a software license published by the code project, a community site for software developers. Copyleft compliance projects software freedom conservancy. There is an ongoing debate as to which class of license provides the greater degree of freedom. But the requiring of the first two isnt enough to make it copyleft. However, code under the later licenses can be combined with code licensed under gpl version 2 or later. What are some examples of sharealikecopyleft licenses. Contributions do not include additions to the program which. Definitions the terms reproduce, reproduction, derivative works, and distribution have the.
Ccbysa provides much weaker protection than copyleft software licenses, since it doesnt guarantee access to source code, but because it is so incompatible with other licenses, it is more restrictive in practice. Cpol code project open license free software license. You are granted a nonexclusive license to use the software product for any legal purposes and use for an unlimited period of time. The problem is that i have used some code from code project which is licenced with the code project open. Describes the ability for you to grantextend a license to the software.
When uploading an article you need to be aware of the risks and legal issues involved. Microsoft public license mspl open source initiative. Aug 15, 2015 the eclipse public license epl is an open source software license used by eclipse foundation for its software. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. By contrast, the gnu general public license is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a programto. Recent versions contain contract clauses similar to the open software license, and should be avoided for the same reasons. Describes the ability to freely relicense the software. How is code project open license free software license abbreviated. A very fast tutorial on open source licenses contact and coil. Copyleft is the idea and the specific stipulation when distributing software that the user will be able to copy it freely, examine and modify the source code, and redistribute the software to others free or priced as long as the redistributed software is also passed along with the copyleft stipulation. The license is mainly applied to content that is being published on the site. The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. The design science license is a strong copyleft license that can apply to any worknot only software or documentation, but also to literature, artworks, music, photography, and video. Gnuprojekt the gnu operating system and the free software.
If you tried to combine code released under either of the later gpl licenses with gplv2 code, you would violate section 6 of gplv2, the source of the incompatibility. This article was adapted from an article authored by chris peters in march 2009. Bug fixes extensions must be released to the public domain. The gnu general public license is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works. A no trademark license this license does not grant you rights to use any contributors name, logo, or trademarks. Server side public license sspl version 1 code project open license cpol. Licenses free source code and tutorials for software developers and architects. Source code and executable files can be redistributed. Many freesoftware licenses are not copyleft licenses because they do not require the licensee to distribute derivative works under the same license. Copyleft licensing article about copyleft licensing by. Free software licenses can be divided into two broad categories. Strongcopyleft, noncopyleft, or somewhere in between.
This policy provides licensing guidance to apache software foundation projects. Whats the difference between permissive and copyleft. However, with a bow to commercial needs, the cpl permits the licensee to redistribute binaries of the modified cpl code under a separate, more restrictive binary agreement, as. These are your weak copyleft licenses, copyleft meaning some part of the derived work also has to be released under the same license. Pthreadswin32 license file only deals with license of pthread library, not including. The software product is provided as freeware without charge. Users are permitted to engage in copying and distributing ed materials.
The open in the name code project open license refers to the license offering accessibility to the software s source code. Viral license is an alternative name for copyleft licenses, especially the gpl, that allows derivative works only when permissions are preserved in modified versions of the work. John discusses the differences between permissiveness and copyleft as they apply to open source licensing. From beerware licensing, where you need to buy a beer for the open source programmer if you see them in a bar, to the finetuned and legallycurated berkeley software distribution bsd license, we have it. Open source license text oracle rightnow cx cloud service. It consists of the gnu gpl version 2, with one additional section that affero added with fsf approval. The principles of communityoriented gpl enforcement. We encourage everyone to use this license if they wish regardless of whether the code is posted on.