The writers of the license maintain it is free software, but the free software foundation says it is not free because it infringes the socalled zero freedom of the gpl, that is, the. There are many variants of simple noncopyleft free software licenses, such as the expat license, freebsd license, x10 license, the x11 license, and the two bsd berkeley software distribution licenses. Any chance you could change the license to apache or mit. The asf and its projects release their software products under the apache license. Powered by a free atlassian jira open source license for apache software foundation. Tldrlegal provides generally good summaries of licenses. Requirements for using an apachelicensed library open. You can charge someone for the software, but remember to give them a. Asfs objective is to provide legal protection to volunteers working on the apache project and to protect the apache brand name from being used by other organization. Let say a software developer uses a library for android phones to make a game, and then makes a patent claim in an attempt to extort license fees from other users wishing to make games using the same library. The common understanding while i was working on apache code a while back was that you could incorporate bsd, mit, and similar licensed libraries but you could not do the same for gpl based licenses. It allows users to use the software for any purpose, to distribute it, to modify it, and to distribute modified versions of the software under the terms of the license, without concern for royalties. The text should be enclosed in the appropriate comment syntax for the file format.
Gpl vs apachemit licenses the ethical dilemma in open source. Every so many weeks you find that gpl license advocates attack the bsd license. If you modify the software, you still have to give back the source code, but you are allowed to link it with proprietary. Always consult your own lawyer before betting the company on somebody elses licensing terms this applies both. Apache gives away all rights to the software and code, provided they include the apache license text in all their distributions.
It doesnt matter if you think theres nothing patentable in your code. If you modify the software, you still have to give back the source code, but you are allowed to link it with proprietary stuff without giving the source code to all of that back. Most of them are equivalent except for details of wording, but the license used for bsd until 1999 had a special problem. Just a brief overview id like to write an application that uses some libraries from mit and some from apache, and i can only release it under bsd, so not sure if there are issues with that. Bsd license example license for template files apache. The writers of the license maintain it is free software, but the free software foundation says it is not free because it infringes the socalled zero freedom of the gpl, that is, the freedom to use the software for any purpose. What is foss licensesapache, bsd, gpl, lgpl explained. Mit license spot the differences due to the helpful visualizations at a glance category. Use of these trademarks is subject to the terms of section 6 of apache license, version 2. Bsd allows for the proprietary use of software, and allows the specific software to be used along with proprietary products. Subject to the terms and conditions of this license, each contributor hereby grants to you a perpetual, worldwide, nonexclusive, nocharge, royaltyfree, irrevocable except as stated in this section patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the work, where such license applies only to those.
If you create a product that uses apache tomcat software or provides additional functionality to that software then. Informatics developed the perpetual license which is now standard throughout the computer industry, wherein ownership is never transferred to the customer. You can freely use, modify, distribute and sell a software licensed under the apache license without worrying about the use of software. Apache is decent model when you have expertise and money, but do not have significant market share yet. Principal difference between bsd and mit licenses is. Mit is often referred to as the x11 license, since many versions have been used by mit in the past. It is based on the modified bsd license, and adds a term expressly stating it does not grant you any patent licenses. Top 10 apache license questions answered whitesource. The lgpl is similar to the gpl, but is more designed for software libraries where you want to allow nongpl applications to link to your library and utilise it. According to the wikipedia article apache license, the free software foundation considers all versions of the apache license as.
Marshall kirk mckusick describes the evolution of the berkeley software distribution bsd license in twenty years of berkeley unix. The apache license has some extra benefits over the bsd or mit x11 licensestyle licenses. When referring to apache tomcat software, please use the full name of apache tomcat for at least the first reference on any web page, help file or similar. Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the license is distributed on an. The license says that i have to include a copy of the license in the project when i used an apache licensed library. Apache openoffice free alternative for office productivity tools. This is a free software license, compatible with both gplv2 and gplv3. The apache software foundation and the free software foundation agree that the apache license 2. Because of this, we encourage you to be careful about using software under this license. Gpl vs apachemit licenses the ethical dilemma in open. Chemisor, a bsd advocate, is of the opinion that a linguistic misunderstanding may be the root of the disagreements over the difference licensing philosophies. Difference between different types of open sources licenses. Nonsoftware enterprises like banks or states and folk like your dad benefit a lot from gpl license.
Not all the libraries using the apache license are from the apache software foundation asf. Many of stallmans coworkers had left to form two companies based on software developed at mit and licensed by mit. Various licenses and comments about them gnu project. This license has been superseded by the apache license, version 2. Mar 12, 2015 principal difference between bsd and mit licenses.
Im not a lawyer and this article should not be considered legal advice. These attacks are about freedom of sharing the code, and to what degree this should be allowed. To inspect the license terms please consult the license and notice files in the root directory of the distribution. The bsd 3clause license the following is a bsd 3clause bsd new or bsd simplified license template. Unless otherwise noted all files in xml commons are covered under the apache license version 2. Apr 07, 2017 difference between different types of open sources licenses. Describes the warranty and if the software license owner can be charged for damages. Gnu project the gnu operating system and the free software. Can i copy code from stack overflow and contribute it to an asf project. What is the difference between mit, apache, bsd licenses. Bsd 3clause license revised explained in plain english. The apache software license was based in large part on bsd and mit style licenses. According to the wikipedia article apache license, the free software foundation considers all versions of the apache license as of 2007 to be incompatible with the previous gpl versions 1. Sluc is a software license published in spain in december 2006 to allow all but military use.
Hawq976 incompatible bsd 4clause licenses asf jira. These licenses, as applied to the original licensed code, allow that code to be used in proprietary software and do not require that open source versions of the. The default license throughout the repository is apache license. Essentially, this is akin to saying do whatever you want with this software, even use it commercially. To generate your own license, change the values of owner, organization and year from their original values as given here, and substitute your own. This final consideration may often be the dominant one, as it was when the apache project decided upon. It is a permissive non copyleft license which permits sublicensing, and reusing it with proprietary applications. Asl allows projects and software to be freely downloaded and used, may it be in whole or in part, for personal, company or commercial purposes and without concern for. From this family, the most common licenses are the 3clause. The long and short of itif you use open source software within your software development project, any permissive license should be fine. Works based on this software may be used with a proprietary license, or it may be licensed as closed source software. It can also be read as a bsd versus gpl open source license introduction and summary.
Most surveys indicate that the vast majority of open source projects use the mit license, the apache license, and the gpl or their variants. Jan 21, 20 apache is decent model when you have expertise and money, but do not have significant market share yet. The build produces two sets of binaries one set that falls under the elastic. The mit, bsd, and isc licenses are permissive licenses. Boost software license 48 bsd license 15,761 common development and distribution license 85 common public attribution license 1. Apache software license 1 apple public source license 2 artistic license 1. They require all modifications, and any software based on the open source. Free, secure and fast bsd software downloads from the largest open source applications and software directory. The following licenses are sorted by the number of conditions, from most gnu agplv3 to none unlicense. They are extremely short and essentially say do whatever you want with this, just dont sue me.
The gpl is by far the best software license for endusers of the code. 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. The apache and apache software foundation must not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without prior written permission. If you are releasing software under a gpl license, it is also necessary to determine what the sharing criteria are. Copyleft licenses such as the gnu gpl insist that modified versions of the program must be free software as well. 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. Gnu public license faq mozilla public license faq apache license faq disclaimer. All software produced by the apache software foundation or any of its projects or subjects is licensed according to the terms of the documents listed below. Bsdlicense spot the differences due to the helpful visualizations at a glance category.
The apache license is a permissive free software license written by the apache software foundation asf. Why you should use a bsd style license for your open. Xml commons contains some software and documentation that is covered under a number of different licenses. The apache license is recognised by the open source initiative as a popular and widely deployed licence with a strong community. This document makes a case for using a bsd style license for software and data.
Non software enterprises like banks or states and folk like your dad benefit a lot from gpl license. 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. Jul 18, 2008 every so many weeks you find that gpl license advocates attack the bsd license. Why you should use a bsd style license for your open source.
Bsd license problem gnu project free software foundation. The apache software license asl is a license scheme for free and opensource computer software foss written by the apache software foundation asf. Stallman devised an alternative to the commercial software license and called it the gpl, or gnu public license. See the license for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the license. All packages produced by the asf are implicitly licensed under the apache license, version 2. When referring to apache tomcat software, please use the full name of apache tomcat for at. Compare the best free open source bsd software at sourceforge. You can charge someone for the software, but remember to give them a copy of gnu gpl which would tell them. Copyleft licenses like gpl are, generally speaking, bad for business. The full license text can also be accessed via the web from the apache licenses page. I have researched a bit about this topic and what i found out is that the part for compiled software in the bsd license is unnecessary. This dooms it to being appropriate for only trivial projects. Free software license provider mit license, apache license 2019 apache license the apache software foundation asf is a nonprofit corporation to support apache software projects.
The berkeley software distribution bsd licenses are a family of permissive licenses. The differences between the gpl, lgpl and the bsd fosswire. Gpl, lgpl, apache, bsd, the great thing about open source code is the large amount of high quality code that is available and many embedded projects use foss code as it really speeds up development time. See how to choose a license for your own work for general recommendations about choosing a license for your work the two major categories of free software license are copyleft and noncopyleft.
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