A software license is a legal agreement that defines how a user or organization can install, use, modify, or distribute a piece of software.
- MIT License
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A very permissive license.
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Allows users to freely use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and sell the software.
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Requires that the original license and copyright notice remain in all copies.
- GNU General Public License (GPL)
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A copyleft license.
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Users can freely use, modify, and distribute the software, but derivative works must also be licensed under GPL.
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Ensures that software remains free and open-source.
- Apache License 2.0
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Similar to MIT but more detailed.
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Allows modification, distribution, and use (commercial or private).
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Provides explicit grant of patent rights to users.
- BSD License (Berkeley Software Distribution)
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Permissive, like MIT.
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Comes in variations (2-clause, 3-clause).
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Allows redistribution and use, but with minimal restrictions.
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Often used in academic and research projects.
- Mozilla Public License (MPL)
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A file-level copyleft license.
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You can combine MPL code with proprietary code, but modifications to MPL-licensed files must remain open-source.
- Creative Commons (CC) Licenses
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(While mostly for creative works, some software/documentation projects use them)
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Types include CC-BY (attribution), CC-BY-SA (share alike), CC-BY-NC (non-commercial).
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Allow varying degrees of freedom depending on chosen variant..