A primer on open source software for business people and. Free redistribution the license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution contai. Now that you understand what each one is what is the difference between each one. An introduction to the legal issues surrounding open source software by daliah saper saper law offices, llc. It grants fewer rights to a work than the standard gpl. Gnu library general public license version 2 open source. The organization was founded in late february 1998 by bruce perens and eric s. The android open source project aosp uses a few open source initiative approved open source licenses for our software.
Both terms refer to essentially the same set of licenses and software, and. In a similar manner, the most widely used ossfs operating system is referred to by two names. Criteria for qualifying as open source licenses include no discrimination against persons or groups and no discrimination against fields of endeavor. Generally, the lgpl is appropriate for libraries that want to allow linking from nongpl and non open source software. The open source initiative osi is a nonprofit corporation formed to educate. Open source initiativecertified licenses, including the apple public license. Sun wants to help with the reduction of open source licenses in use as suggested by the open source initiative osi license proliferation committee. Although there are different rules for free software licenses four freedoms and open source licenses open source definition, what is not apparent from those two sets of rules is. The term was coined to make the movement more businessfriendly than the already established free software movement which is more a political social movement. Immediately recognized as a free software license by the free software foundation and approved as an open source license by the open source initiative, mpl 2.
Raymond, part of a group inspired by the netscape communications corporation publishing the source code for its flagship netscape communicator product. This is a list of free and open source software for geological data handling and interpretation. Understanding open source and free software licensing oreilly. The free software foundation may publish revised andor new versions of the gnu lesser general public license from time. Raymond, part of a group inspired by the netscape communications corporation publishing the source code for its flagship netscape communicator. The osis new document, principles of drm nonaggression. A quick guide to software licensing for the scientist. The lgpl is an open source license published by the free software foundation. Employees of the fbi, cia and nsa with top secret clearance anyone who has the knowledge needed to access it only university researchers with a government grant only employees of the linux foundation source code refers to. Khmer software initiative localization of open source software to khmer language, development of khmer documentation and training materials and khmeros khmer software initiative browse fonts khmeroskhmeros fonts 5. Open source initiative says standards arent open unless.
The open source initiative, a nonprofit that certifies open source licenses, has made an important policy statement about open standards. A primer on open source software for business people and lawyers. The charge is optional, depending on the conditions of the permit. Thus, the open software license makes it very difficult to develop software using the ordinary tools of free software development. Theres only one unique version, free, fully functional and enterpriseready. This license, the gnu library general public license, applies to certain designated libraries. These components are open source software licensed under a license. A short guide to open source licenses smashing magazine. All source code and binaries executable files up to and including 2 beta 2 are licensed under both the lgpl and sissl. Many people in the free software opensource community feel that software. Open source software is found in development tools, operating systems and. In the early stage of an open source project when the author or authors are first publishing the software, the choice of license reflects as much of the social contract that is being made for the project as any legal requirements.
This is a comparison of free and opensource software licenses. The official definition of open source software which is published by the open source initiative and is too long to include here was derived indirectly from our criteria for free software. The open software license osl is a software license created by lawrence rosen. In fact, the two models for software licensing open source and. It was designed to encourage wider commercial adoption or use of. Open source 2 software is a part of the software ecosystem that affords software developers and users an alternative style of software development and distribution. The need for such a framework arises because the different licenses can contain contradictory requirements, rendering it impossible to legally combine source code from separatelylicensed software in order to create and publish a new program.
The lessergeneral public license lgpl is like the gpl, but it allows works licensed under it to be linked to. Linux essentials chapter 2 exam answer question id 267 the samba application is a. Mit license may refer to the expat license used for the xml parsing library expat or to the x11 license also called mitx consortium license. Legal impacts of open source and free software licensing. The license allows developers and companies to use and integrate a software component released under the lgpl into their own even proprietary software without being required by the terms of a strong copyleft license to release the source code of their own components. There are three versions of the license commonly known as the lgpl. In simplified terms, lgpl requires shipping of source to the application. The open source initiative has certified it as an opensource license, but the debian project judged version 1. Gnu general public license, which was designed for utility programs. The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. The term open source was invented in 1998 when the open source initiative osi organization was created.
Its a restrictive and weakcopyleft license, similar in many ways to lgpl. Pelco developer network pdn open source software notice pelco products may include certain open source or other software originated from third parties that is subject to the gnu general public license gpl, gnu librarylesser general public license lgpl and different andor additional licenses, disclaimers, and notices. All source code lives in public repositories on github and selfhosted mercurial as said in our documentation, most of the code in the nuxeo project is licensed under the lgpl nuxeo platform is fully open source software developed by nuxeo and a community of contributors under. Notice that free and open source requires that the source code is available. Various licenses and comments about them gnu project. Why open source misses the point of free software gnu. The gpl, lgpl, and mozilla licenses the licenses described in this chapter. Gnu lesser general public license version 3 open source. The gnu affero general public license is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works, specifically designed to ensure cooperation with the community in the case of network server software. The osi recommends a mix of permissive and copyleft licenses, the apache license 2. Revised versions of the gnu lesser general public license.
Can gpl licenced software be used in corporate environments. For this reason, and because it is incompatible with the gpl, we recommend that no version of the osl be used for any software. Jeffrey also serves as adjunct professor of law at the university of north carolina. Gnu general public license this license, commonly known as the gpl, has two versions that are actively and widely used in many open source communities. Open source software licenses used by alkacon opencms, the open source. Open source licenses are licenses that comply with the open source definition in brief, they allow software to be freely used, modified, and shared. The gnu lesser general public license lgpl is a freesoftware license published by the. File server web server security server mail server question id 268 which of the following are examples of desktop software. Gnu library general public license, version 2 spdx short identifier.
The gnu lesser general public license lgpl is a free software license published by the free software foundation fsf. If opensourc e software is licensed under the lgpl, other software developers may use it for their software development projects even if their projects are closedsource or otherwise proprietary or commercial in nature. Open source software free software ossfs references. The open source initiative considers the gnu gpl and lgpl to be approved licenses, which means that they meet their open source definition. Understanding open source and free software licensing. The open source initiative defines a permissive software license as a noncopyleft license. This license is quite different from the ordinary one. Open source licensed under the gnu lesser general public license v. An introduction to the legal issues surrounding open. The osl is a copyleft license, with a termination clause triggered by filing a lawsuit alleging patent infringement.
The mit license published by the open source initiative is. Likewise, open source software licenses dont simply reflect a set of legal choices. All use of this software is subject to the terms and conditions of the polydevs license agreement accepted upon installation of this software and packaged with the software. If you have licensed software youve written under gpl version 2, and you are the original licensor of that software, you may wish to relicense your software under gpl version 3. Gnu affero general public license version 3 open source. The open source initiative osi was created in part to reduce the fragmentation of the foss license space cause by incompatible and redundant licenses.
The list is split into broad categories, depending on the intended use of the software and its scope of functionality. Githubs choosealicense website described the mit permissive license as, lets people do anything they want with your code as long as they provide attribution back to you and dont hold you liable. The lgpl requires modifications to the work to also be distributed under oss terms, but allows the work to be included unmodified in nonoss combined works without propagating its. The open source initiative osi is one such organization keeping a list of. What is the difference between gpl, agpl and lgpl licenses. The gnu lesser general public license is a free, open source license for software and other kinds of works. It coexists in that environment along with a broad spectrum of other development and distribution methods, including public domain software, freeware, shareware, proprietary commercial software and even. An introduction to the legal issues surrounding open source software. Open source software users are free to distribute applications and updates. Selection from understanding open source and free software licensing book.
The open source initiative is a california public benefit corporation, with 50 taxexempt status, founded in 1998. Later, in august 1998, the organization added a board of directors. All opensource software, according to the open source initiative, is distributed under. Comparison of free and opensource software licenses wikipedia. It is a middle ground between copyleft licenses such as the gpl and permissive licenses like bsd and mit.