Open-source license
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An open-source license is a copyright license for computer software that makes the source code available under terms that allow for modification and redistribution without having to pay the original author. Such licenses may have additional restrictions such as a requirement to preserve the name of the authors and the copyright statement within the code. One popular (and sometimes considered normative) set of open source licenses are those approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) based on their Open Source Definition (OSD).
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[edit] Comparisons
There are also shared source licenses, such as the Microsoft Permissive License (MS-PL) and Microsoft Community License (MS-CL), which have some similarities with open source. Other shared source licenses, such as the Microsoft Reference License (MS-RL), are not compatible with the Open Source Definition.
The Free Software Foundation has related but distinct criteria for evaluating whether or not a license qualifies a program as free software. See Free software license and Open source license. Likewise, the Debian project has its own criteria, the Debian Free Software Guidelines, on which the Open Source Definition is based.
[edit] OSI approved licenses
Software in the public domain (that is, with all copyright renounced), meets those criteria as long as all source code is made available, and is therefore recognized by the OSI and entitled to use their service mark. In addition, OSI has approved the following licenses as of 2005:
[edit] Non-OSI source licenses
Licenses that are source-available but not OSI-Certified include:
- HESSLA
- Lemur License Agreement
- MAME (source available, but not free software because it forbids commercial use and redistribution)
- PGP
- Ruby License
- Microsoft Permissive License (MS-PL)
- Microsoft Community License (MS-CL)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Open Source Initiative
- Open Source Licensing — a review and discussion of Lawrence Rosen's book Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law (ISBN 0-13-148787-6) on slashdot
- Open Source License Quick Reference Chart — a chart comparing various aspects of Open Source licenses, with the option to select your bias. Based on Zooko's document, Open Source Reference for Choosing a Free Software License.
- Understanding Open Source Software - by Red Hat's Mark Webbink, Esq. — an excellent overview of copyright and open source.
- Discussion "Open Source/Free Software v Commercial Licence Software"
- EU report in favor of adopting open source software
- Shared Source Licenses
