Licenses

Intellectual Property Rights

  • Copyright:

    • Protects the "expression of an idea" and applies to the source code that gets written. Copyright protection is granted automatically at the moment that the code is written. Copyright protection means that only the author is allowed to make copies of or changes in the code, unless the author explicitly gives this right also to others by means of a copyright license.

  • Patents:

    • Protect inventions and need to be explicitly requested. When a patent has been granted to you, you have the exclusive right to make use of that invention or to give a patent license to others. Patents can be broader than copyrights, because if someone else makes the same invention that you have a patent on, then you can force them to stop using the invention or to buy a patent license from you. With copyright, however, it is possible that multiple people independently write very similar code and each has their own copyright protection.

Code

  • Public domain:

    • Means it has no license.

  • MIT

    • Does not require mentioning the author.

    • Can be modified.

    • You can sell your work; your work can be sold by others.

  • BSD 2-Clause

    • Very similar to the MIT License, with small differences.

  • BSD 3-Clause

    • Exactly the same as BSD 2-Clause, but forbids others from using the name of the Copyright owner or its contributors to promote derived products without written consent.

  • GPL

    • The freedom to use the software for any purpose,

    • The freedom to change the software to suit your needs,

    • The freedom to share the software with your friends and neighbors, and

    • The freedom to share the changes you make.

  • GPL v2

    • Forks must have the same license.

    • Forks cannot be Close Source.

    • Forks must document any changes made to the code.

  • GPL v3

    • From what I understand, it’s the same as GPL v2, but “includes patents,” whatever that means.

  • LGPL

  • ISC

  • Apache 2.0

  • Apache

    • Unclear about how to handle patent rights.

    • Requires inclusion of a ‘notice’ of all changes to the original code.

Creative Commons

  • *Acronyms:

    • BY: Attribution.

      • Give credit to the author.

    • SA: Share Alike.

      • Every fork of the product must be shared under the same license.

    • ND: Non Derivative.

      • Cannot be distributed if the product has been modified.

    • NC: Non Commercial.

      • Cannot be used commercially.

  • CC - BY (Attribution)

    • Must give credit to the author.

  • CC - BY - SA (Share Alike)

    • Must give credit to the author.

    • Every fork of the product must be shared under the same license.

  • CC - BY - ND (Non Derivative)

    • Can use.

    • Can modify.

    • Cannot be distributed if the product has been modified.

    • Can be used commercially.

  • CC - BY - NC (Non Commercial)

    • Can use.

    • Can modify.

    • Can distribute.

    • Cannot be used commercially.

    • ~If any modification is made to the product, this license does not need to be respected.

  • CC - BY - NC - SA - ND (Non Commercial)

    • Can use.

    • Can modify.

    • Cannot be distributed if the product has been modified.

    • Cannot be used commercially.