GitHub Licenses Explained: A Quick Guide
There are many open-source licenses available on GitHub, each with different permissions, conditions, and limitations. Here’s a brief overview of some popular licenses and their meanings:
📌MIT License: A permissive license that allows users to do almost anything with the code as long as they provide attribution back to the author and don’t hold the author liable. This license is widely used for its simplicity and permissiveness.
📌GNU General Public License (GPL): A copyleft license that requires any changes made to the licensed software to be released under the same GPL license. There are three versions of the GPL license:
- GPLv2: The second version of the GPL, which has some compatibility issues with other licenses.
- GPLv3: The latest version of the GPL, which addresses some of the compatibility issues of GPLv2 and provides more protection against software patents.
📌GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL): A more permissive version of the GPL license that allows linking to the licensed software without requiring the entire application to be licensed under the same terms. There are two versions of the LGPL license:
- LGPLv2.1: The second version of the LGPL, which has some compatibility issues with other licenses.
- LGPLv3: The latest version of the LGPL, which addresses some of the compatibility issues of LGPLv2.1 and provides more protection against software patents.
📌Apache License 2.0: A permissive license that allows users to use, modify, and distribute the licensed software. The Apache License 2.0 also provides explicit protection against patent infringement claims.
📌Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL 2.0): A hybrid between permissive and copyleft licenses. MPL 2.0 allows the licensed code to be combined with proprietary code but requires any changes made to the licensed code to be released under the MPL 2.0 license.
📌BSD License: A family of permissive licenses that allow users to use, modify, and distribute the licensed software. The main difference between the different BSD licenses is the number of clauses included:
- BSD 2-Clause “Simplified” License: A very permissive license that only requires attribution to the original author and a disclaimer of liability.
- BSD 3-Clause “New” or “Revised” License: Adds a clause that prohibits the use of the author’s name for promoting derived works without permission.
📌Creative Commons Licenses: A set of licenses mainly used for creative works, such as text, images, and music, but can also be applied to software. There are several Creative Commons licenses with different combinations of permissions and restrictions, like attribution, share-alike, and non-commercial use.
These are just a few examples of the many open-source licenses available. To choose the right license for your project, you should consider the goals and requirements of your project and consult a legal expert if necessary. You can also use resources like Choose a License to help you decide which license best suits your needs.
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