Licenses

A permissive license that also provides an express grant of patent rights from contributors to users.

Forbidden

• Hold Liable: Software is provided without warranty and the software author/license owner cannot be held liable for damages.
• Use Trademark: While this may be implicitly true of all licenses, this license explicitly states that you may NOT use the names, logos, or trademarks of contributors.

Required

• License and copyright notice: Include a copy of the license and copyright notice with the code.
• State Changes: Indicate significant changes made to the code.

Permitted

• Commercial Use: This software and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.
• Distribution: You may distribute this software.
• Modification: This software may be modified.
• Patent Grant: This license provides an express grant of patent rights from the contributor to the recipient.
• Private Use: You may use and modify the software without distributing it.
• Sublicensing: You may grant a sublicense to modify and distribute this software to third parties not included in the license.

GPL is the most widely used free software license and has a strong copyleft requirement. When distributing derived works, the source code of the work must be made available under the same license. There are multiple variants of the GPL, each with different requirements.

Forbidden

• Hold Liable: Software is provided without warranty and the software author/license owner cannot be held liable for damages.
• Sublicensing: You may not grant a sublicense to modify and distribute this software to third parties not included in the license.

Required

• Disclose Source: Source code must be made available when distributing the software. In the case of LGPL, the source for the library (and not the entire program) must be made available.
• License and copyright notice: Include a copy of the license and copyright notice with the code.
• Network Use is Distribution: Users who interact with the software via network are given the right to receive a copy of the corresponding source code.
• State Changes: Indicate significant changes made to the code.

Permitted

• Commercial Use: This software and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.
• Distribution: You may distribute this software.
• Modification: This software may be modified.
• Patent Grant: This license provides an express grant of patent rights from the contributor to the recipient.
• Private Use: You may use and modify the software without distributing it.

Forbidden

• Hold Liable: Software is provided without warranty and the software author/license owner cannot be held liable for damages.
• Sublicensing: You may not grant a sublicense to modify and distribute this software to third parties not included in the license.

Required

• Disclose Source: Source code must be made available when distributing the software. In the case of LGPL, the source for the library (and not the entire program) must be made available.
• License and copyright notice: Include a copy of the license and copyright notice with the code.
• State Changes: Indicate significant changes made to the code.

Permitted

• Commercial Use: This software and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.
• Distribution: You may distribute this software.
• Modification: This software may be modified.
• Patent Grant: This license provides an express grant of patent rights from the contributor to the recipient.
• Private Use: You may use and modify the software without distributing it.

Forbidden

• Hold Liable: Software is provided without warranty and the software author/license owner cannot be held liable for damages.
• Sublicensing: You may not grant a sublicense to modify and distribute this software to third parties not included in the license.

Required

• Disclose Source: Source code must be made available when distributing the software. In the case of LGPL, the source for the library (and not the entire program) must be made available.
• License and copyright notice: Include a copy of the license and copyright notice with the code.
• State Changes: Indicate significant changes made to the code.

Permitted

• Commercial Use: This software and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.
• Distribution: You may distribute this software.
• Modification: This software may be modified.
• Patent Grant: This license provides an express grant of patent rights from the contributor to the recipient.
• Private Use: You may use and modify the software without distributing it.

A permissive license that is short and to the point. It lets people do anything with your code with proper attribution and without warranty.

Forbidden

• Hold Liable: Software is provided without warranty and the software author/license owner cannot be held liable for damages.

Required

• License and copyright notice: Include a copy of the license and copyright notice with the code.

Permitted

• Commercial Use: This software and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.
• Distribution: You may distribute this software.
• Modification: This software may be modified.
• Private Use: You may use and modify the software without distributing it.
• Sublicensing: You may grant a sublicense to modify and distribute this software to third parties not included in the license.

Heavily favored by the Perl community, the Artistic license requires that modified versions of the software do not prevent users from running the standard version.

Forbidden

• Hold Liable: Software is provided without warranty and the software author/license owner cannot be held liable for damages.
• Use Trademark: While this may be implicitly true of all licenses, this license explicitly states that you may NOT use the names, logos, or trademarks of contributors.

Required

• License and copyright notice: Include a copy of the license and copyright notice with the code.
• State Changes: Indicate significant changes made to the code.

Permitted

• Commercial Use: This software and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.
• Distribution: You may distribute this software.
• Modification: This software may be modified.
• Private Use: You may use and modify the software without distributing it.
• Sublicensing: You may grant a sublicense to modify and distribute this software to third parties not included in the license.

This commercially-friendly copyleft license provides the ability to commercially license binaries; a modern royalty-free patent license grant; and the ability for linked works to use other licenses, including commercial ones.

Forbidden

• Hold Liable: Software is provided without warranty and the software author/license owner cannot be held liable for damages.

Required

• Disclose Source: Source code must be made available when distributing the software. In the case of LGPL, the source for the library (and not the entire program) must be made available.
• License and copyright notice: Include a copy of the license and copyright notice with the code.

Permitted

• Commercial Use: This software and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.
• Distribution: You may distribute this software.
• Modification: This software may be modified.
• Patent Grant: This license provides an express grant of patent rights from the contributor to the recipient.
• Private Use: You may use and modify the software without distributing it.
• Sublicensing: You may grant a sublicense to modify and distribute this software to third parties not included in the license.

A permissive license lets people do anything with your code with proper attribution and without warranty. The ISC license is functionally equivalent to the BSD 2-Clause and MIT licenses, removing some language that is no longer necessary.

Forbidden

• Hold Liable: Software is provided without warranty and the software author/license owner cannot be held liable for damages.

Required

• License and copyright notice: Include a copy of the license and copyright notice with the code.

Permitted

• Commercial Use: This software and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.
• Distribution: You may distribute this software.
• Modification: This software may be modified.
• Private Use: You may use and modify the software without distributing it.
• Sublicensing: You may grant a sublicense to modify and distribute this software to third parties not included in the license.

Forbidden

• Hold Liable: Software is provided without warranty and the software author/license owner cannot be held liable for damages.
• Use Trademark: While this may be implicitly true of all licenses, this license explicitly states that you may NOT use the names, logos, or trademarks of contributors.

Required

• License and copyright notice: Include a copy of the license and copyright notice with the code.

Permitted

• Commercial Use: This software and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.
• Distribution: You may distribute this software.
• Modification: This software may be modified.
• Private Use: You may use and modify the software without distributing it.
• Sublicensing: You may grant a sublicense to modify and distribute this software to third parties not included in the license.

Forbidden

• Hold Liable: Software is provided without warranty and the software author/license owner cannot be held liable for damages.

Required

• License and copyright notice: Include a copy of the license and copyright notice with the code.

Permitted

• Commercial Use: This software and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.
• Distribution: You may distribute this software.
• Modification: This software may be modified.
• Private Use: You may use and modify the software without distributing it.
• Sublicensing: You may grant a sublicense to modify and distribute this software to third parties not included in the license.

Primarily used for software libraries, LGPL requires that derived works be licensed under the same license, but works that only link to it do not fall under this restriction. There are two commonly used versions of the LGPL.

Forbidden

• Hold Liable: Software is provided without warranty and the software author/license owner cannot be held liable for damages.

Required

• Disclose Source: Source code must be made available when distributing the software. In the case of LGPL, the source for the library (and not the entire program) must be made available.
• Library usage: The library may be used within a non-open-source application.
• License and copyright notice: Include a copy of the license and copyright notice with the code.

Permitted

• Commercial Use: This software and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.
• Distribution: You may distribute this software.
• Modification: This software may be modified.
• Patent Grant: This license provides an express grant of patent rights from the contributor to the recipient.
• Private Use: You may use and modify the software without distributing it.
• Sublicensing: You may grant a sublicense to modify and distribute this software to third parties not included in the license.

Forbidden

• Hold Liable: Software is provided without warranty and the software author/license owner cannot be held liable for damages.

Required

• Disclose Source: Source code must be made available when distributing the software. In the case of LGPL, the source for the library (and not the entire program) must be made available.
• Library usage: The library may be used within a non-open-source application.
• License and copyright notice: Include a copy of the license and copyright notice with the code.

Permitted

• Commercial Use: This software and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.
• Distribution: You may distribute this software.
• Modification: This software may be modified.
• Patent Grant: This license provides an express grant of patent rights from the contributor to the recipient.
• Private Use: You may use and modify the software without distributing it.
• Sublicensing: You may grant a sublicense to modify and distribute this software to third parties not included in the license.

The Mozilla Public License (MPL 2.0) is maintained by the Mozilla foundation. This license attempts to be a compromise between the permissive BSD license and the reciprocal GPL license.

Forbidden

• Hold Liable: Software is provided without warranty and the software author/license owner cannot be held liable for damages.
• Use Trademark: While this may be implicitly true of all licenses, this license explicitly states that you may NOT use the names, logos, or trademarks of contributors.

Required

• Disclose Source: Source code must be made available when distributing the software. In the case of LGPL, the source for the library (and not the entire program) must be made available.
• License and copyright notice: Include a copy of the license and copyright notice with the code.

Permitted

• Commercial Use: This software and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.
• Distribution: You may distribute this software.
• Modification: This software may be modified.
• Patent Grant: This license provides an express grant of patent rights from the contributor to the recipient.
• Private Use: You may use and modify the software without distributing it.
• Sublicensing: You may grant a sublicense to modify and distribute this software to third parties not included in the license.

You retain all rights and do not permit distribution, reproduction, or derivative works. You may grant some rights in cases where you publish your source code to a site that requires accepting terms of service. For example, publishing code in a public repository on GitHub requires that you allow others to view and fork your code.

Forbidden

• Distribution: You may not distribute this software.
• Modification: This software may not be modified.
• Sublicensing: You may not grant a sublicense to modify and distribute this software to third parties not included in the license.

Required

• License and copyright notice: Include a copy of the license and copyright notice with the code.

Permitted

• Commercial Use: This software and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.
• Private Use: You may use and modify the software without distributing it.

Because copyright is automatic in most countries, the Unlicense is a template to waive copyright interest in software you've written and dedicate it to the public domain. Use the Unlicense to opt out of copyright entirely. It also includes the no-warranty statement from the MIT/X11 license.

Forbidden

• Hold Liable: Software is provided without warranty and the software author/license owner cannot be held liable for damages.

Required

Permitted

• Commercial Use: This software and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.
• Distribution: You may distribute this software.
• Modification: This software may be modified.
• Private Use: You may use and modify the software without distributing it.

Forbidden

• Hold Liable: Software is provided without warranty and the software author/license owner cannot be held liable for damages.

Required

Permitted

• Commercial Use: This software and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.
• Distribution: You may distribute this software.
• Modification: This software may be modified.
• Private Use: You may use and modify the software without distributing it.
• Sublicensing: You may grant a sublicense to modify and distribute this software to third parties not included in the license.