Short Bytes:While open sourcing a project, one needs a license so that the terms distribution, linking, modification, private use, etc., can be automatically taken care of. There are many open source licenses to choose from, some of them being MIT, GNU GPL, Apache 2.0, Creative Commons, BSD licenses. Each has its own terms of the above characteristics that even decide the ownership and credibility of the project.
But first let’s see, what is licensing.
What is licensing?
There has always been a lot of confusion in what licensing really means. When one licenses something, one is not giving its rights away, as the copyrights (or the patent, if one has one) are your own to have. Licenses provide rules and guidelines for others to use your work. Open source licenses help others to contribute to your work or project without seeking special individual permission to do so.
Here are some of the licenses and what they mean by their terms and conditions of linking, distribution, modification, private use, etc.
Recommended:Difference Between Freeware and Open Source Software
Different types of open source licenses:
GNU General Public License
It is important to know the distinction between source and binary distributions. There are some constraints regarding releasing applications under each other. Also, if a project uses GNU GPL license, it has to comply with some standard rules of commenting parts of license requirements inside the code itself.
GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
It grants fewer right to work than GNU GPL. It’s generally appropriate for libraries and projects that want to allow linking from non-GPL and non-open-source software. GPL requires any other project or source that is using the project under GPL to also be licensed as GPL; GPL licensed code can’t be used for paid and proprietary software. LGPL cancels it out bynotrequiring other projects with parts of the code to be similarly licensed.
BSD License
BSD license is a part of a family of free software licenses that have much fewer restrictions in distribution as compared to other free software licenses. Two important versions are:
Both have been accepted as open source licenses by the Open Source Initiative.
The New BSD License (known as the “3-clause license”) allows unlimited redistribution for any purpose, so as long as the copyrights and disclaimers of warranty of the license are maintained. This license has an interesting requirement. It contains a phrase restricting the use of contributors’ names for endorsements of a derived work without specific permissions. It basically means that if someone has forked some famous person’s code and made changes to make a new project, s/he can’t use that person’s name to endorse it. The primary difference between the New and the Simplified BSD License is that simplified BSD license omits this clause.
Recommended:Why Should Every Developer Contribute To Open Source Software?
MIT LICENSE
It’s the shortest and perhaps most used of all the popular open source licenses. Its terms are loose and more open than most others. The main giving of this license is:
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
This basically means that you’re able to use, copy, and modify the software however you want. No one can prevent you from using it in any other project. You can give the software under it for free, or sell it. No restrictions on distribution howsoever. Anyone can do whatever one fancies with the code licensed under MIT license, as long as it’s accompanied by the license.
CREATIVE COMMONS
Creative Commons (CC) [under whichMIT Open Courseware Materialis released] licenses aren’t quite open source. They are common for design projects. A wide variety of them are available each granting particular and certain rights. A CC License has four basic parts.
Remember, these are not necessarily all the rules in all the licenses based on CC. Some CC Licenses may or may not have the above rules. They are mutually exclusive and can be combined as per the needs.
APACHE LICENSE
Apache License version 2.0 rights can be applied to both copyrights and patents. Some of the licenses can be applied only to copyrights and not patents. Some details of Apache License:
Redistribution of the code has requirements, mainly related to proper credit to those who’ve worked on the code and maintaining the license.
Stay tuned for the tribute post for Aarzon Swartz, Internet’s Very Own Boy, where we remember what he stood for, projects he was involved in, what kind of books he read, things he wrote on his blog, which is still alive after his death, and more.
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