What is open source software, and what open source licenses is ieee intending to use. The mit license is the least restrictive license out there. If its worth money to you its important to get your licensing right. Licensing and intellectual property rights of open source. The apache license is a permissive open source software license so you can release your modified version of the apache licensed product under any license of your choice. The following licenses are sorted by the number of conditions, from most gnu agplv3 to. It allows users to use the software for any purpose. Describes the warranty and if the software license owner can be charged for damages. The apache software foundation has been home to numerous important open source software projects from its inception in 1999. All in all, the most acknowledged business friendly license are imho the apache license, the artistic license and the mozilla public license. If you are a commercial software developer that depends on selling your own software in the marketplace, however, it is important to understand the legal.
What is the best open source license for commercialization. Max easley senior vice president production operations. Successes range from geronimo to tomcat to hadoop, the distributed. You can freely use, modify, distribute and sell a software licensed under the apache license without worrying about the use of software. After that you have the no competing commercial product licenses. Apache licensing and distribution faq apache software. Can i use an open source library licensed under apache.
Sposting this here as some of you are experts in gnu licensing, and linuxquestions seems to be more for technical help. Use of these trademarks is subject to the terms of section 6 of apache license, version 2. Contribute to licenses license templates development by creating an account on github. Linus torvalds says gpl v3 violates everything that gplv2 stood for duration. Midland radio is an industry leader in two way communications and noaa weather radio technology. The code contains a standard apache license header which refers to the standard apache license in the distribution. The terms state that users cant remove existing, patent, trademarks and attribution notices. The lgpl on the other hand has the requirement that either the lgpl library links dynamically and can be replaced by a user or the entire work must be released under a gplcompatible opensource license. Comparison of free and opensource software licenses. Can gnu licensed software be used for commercial gain. If you provide commercial support and would like your company to be listed, please send us an email, and we will work with you to do so. You must also not use any of the apache marks like the multicolored. The licenses are incompatible in one direction only, and it is a result of asfs licensing. The second license the ieee will be using is the apache license, version 2.
Can i use a apache v2 licensed driver for a commercial. License information this page presents the opinion of some debianlegal contributors on how certain licenses follow the debian free software guidelines dfsg. It basically says that anyone can do whatever they want with the licensed material, as long as its accompanied by the license. The comparison only covers software licenses with a linked article for details, approved by at least one expert group at the fsf, the osi, the debian project or the fedora project. If you create a product that uses apache tomcat software or provides additional functionality to that software then. If the author of the software does want the users to receive a copy of the software, they can license it. Can gnu licensed software be used for commercial gain without selling the software. Sell software that uses libraries licensed under apache licence 2. However, you must not name your product in a way that it looks like an endorsement from apache. Code developed elsewhere, licensed to apache under a software grant agreement, incorporated into apache projects, distributed by apache, and licensed to downstream users under the apache license.
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. The apache software foundation uses various licenses to distribute software and documentation, to accept regular contributions from individuals and corporations, and to accept larger grants of existing software products. A short guide to open source licenses smashing magazine. Contributor means each individual or legal entity that creates, contributes to the creation of, or owns covered software.
When referring to apache tomcat software, please use the full name of apache tomcat for at. Christmann iv chief executive officer and president. Apache corporation is an oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in the united states, egypt and the united kingdom north sea. They allow a user to build commercial software on top of open source software, or extend open source products, and declare their work as. Describes the ability to modify the software and create derivatives. Afaik if you are simply linking to an apache licence 2. For a list of licenses not specifically intended for software, see list of free content licenses. The apache license says do whatever you want with this, just dont sue me but does so with many more words, which lawyers like because it adds specificity. The text should be enclosed in the appropriate comment syntax for the file format. Instead, you license the software from the publisher. Describes the ability to use the software for commercial purposes. Sell software that uses libraries licensed under apache.
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. Choosing the best open source license is one of the most important decisions you can make for a new project. Difference between different types of open sources licenses. The asf and its projects release their software products under the apache license. Why are the license files for the different apache software foundation projects. The apache license is a permissive free software license written by the apache software foundation asf. The mpl fills a useful space in the spectrum of free and open source software licenses, sitting between the apache license, which does not require modifications to be shared, and the gnu family of licenses, which requires modifications to be shared under a much broader set of circumstances than the mpl.
Can i sell a proprietary product based on commercial open. Furthermore, even if creative commons is not widely used for software development, some options are business friendly. However, gplv3 software cannot be included in apache projects. Apache in some ways is similar in that it seeks to provide very similar freedom of. Software licensing gpl agpl bsd mit apache eula youtube. However, you must not name your product in a way that it looks like.
I think youre confused by the difference between the license under which code is distributed and the trademark of the. The apache license does not place any restrictions on software that links to a plugin or library that is distributed under the apache license. Is there any difference in what i have to do to legaly use the material in my commercial product. These licenses help us achieve our goal of providing reliable and longlived software products through collaborative open source software development. These files are designed to be used by lice, a commandline license generator for software projects.
To apply the apache license to your work, attach the following boilerplate notice, with the fields enclosed by brackets replaced with your own identifying information. If you were wondering whether you can use apache licensed code in your commercial applications and what do you need to do in order to comply with the license heres the unofficial simple ans short answer. Corporatefriendly open source licenses stack overflow. Top 10 apache license questions answered whitesource. This is a comparison of free and opensource software licenses. Companies providing support for apache guacamole are not endorsed by the apache software foundation, though some such companies do employ committers of the apache guacamole project. Most developers default to popular permissive licenses like mit, bsd or apache. Can i use a apache v2 licensed driver for a commercial project without revealing sources of the project. Perfect for those who work in a noisy environment such as warehouse workers, operators, laborers, security personnel, sport shooters and any other activity or. These are great choices for non commercial projects, as they reduce user resistance toward project adoption.
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