An infographic for open source software licensing. This resource can serve as a simple introduction to open source software licensing, and as a reference for future use

Kirkham, Christopher

Lynn, Alistair

May, Daniel

Puia, Alexandru

English

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Is ittrivial?Is itcode?Is it part ofan existingproject?Allowproprietryusage?Do youwant accessto changesmade?Restrictuse of yourname inpromotion?Public DomainCreativeCommonsUse presentlicenseGPL LGPL BSD (3 clause)MIT/X11YESNONOYESYESNOYESNONOYES YESNO   Chris KirkhamExcept where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/Copyright© 2010Alexandru Puia Alistair LynnDaniel May  <ck5g09@ecs.soton.ac.uk><ap4g09@ecs.soton.ac.uk><al22g09@ecs.soton.ac.uk><dm16g09@ecs.soton.ac.uk>{Making Linux GPL'dwas definitely the bestthing I ever did.❝Linus Torvalds1970s 1980s 1990s 2000sOriginalBSDOriginalGPLOriginalLGPLLGPLUpdatedMITMPLCreativeCommons[1] Beard, A and Kim, H, 2007. A Survey on Open Source Software Licenses. [online] ACM Digital Library: Available at<http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1229673> [Accessed 7th December 2010].Choosing An OpenSource License[1]CopyrightCopyleftAllows proprietary useStandard disclaimerName usable in promotionGNU GPLGNU LGPLMIT/X11BSD (3 clause)Artistic LicenseApachePublic DomainCopyleft adj. /kɒpiːlεft/Allowing use, distribution, and modification on thecondition that any redistributions or modifications also belicensed under the same condition and, in the case ofcomputer software, are accompanied by source code. [2][2] Wiktionary, 2010. Copyleft. [online] Available at: <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/copyleft> [Accessed 5th December 2010].The feature of intellectual property being not protected under patent orcopyright, i.e. no person or other legal entity can establish proprietaryinterests. [3]Public Domain n. /pʌblɪk dəʊmeɪn/[3] Wiktionary, 2010. Public Domain. [online] Available at: <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/public_domain> [Accessed 5th December 2010].͠Current license usage proportions [4]Open-source adj. /oʊ.pən soʊɹs/Of, or relating to a product which is licensed to permit modifications and redistribution of its source code. [5] [4] Black Duck Software, 2010. Top 20 Most Commonly Used Licenses in Open Source Projects. [online] Available at:<http://www.blackducksoftware.com/oss/licenses#top20>License Release Datescopyright GPLlicensesource codedistributeauthorderivativeredistributionworkholderincompatibilityoriginaltermsreleasecontributionlawlegaldeveloperMITBSDCreative CommonsLGPLclauseredistributioncopyleftcollaborativeanyonepublic domainopen-sourcegrant freefreedomMPLApachewarrantyArtistic[5] Wiktionary, 2010. Open-source. [online] Available at: <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/open-source> [Accessed 5th December 2010].Standing on the Shoulders of GiantsThe idea of using other peoples work and ideas to help with your own is not new; in fact the phrase “standing on the shoulders of giants” has been around since the twelfth century. The free software movement has embraced this idea, by enabling people to access, extend and reuse source code written under an open source licence. This idea is considered to be the antithesis of “reinventing the wheel”, a practice which is common when software is protected by copyright and hidden behind binaries. Because of these restrictive licences, a lot of a programmer’s productivity is spent re-implementingsomething that has been done a thousand times before. Withrestrictions enforced are those ofattribution, such that all contributingauthors may be recognised for theirwork, and that any derivativemany open source licences, the only works are released under thesame licence, leading to more available code for people touse.References

INFO2009 Group 1 -- Open Source Software Licensing Infographic

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