JISC

It is often said that open source software begins and ends with the licence. That may be true. But with more than 50 Open Source Initiative (OSI) approved licences that meet the 10 criteria of the open source definition, how do you decide which licence to use? 

Rowan Wilson of OSS Watch might be able to help. Rowan has written a suite of briefing notes on five of the most popular licences. In straightforward language Rowan explores the history and key features of the GNU General Public License (GPL), GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), Mozilla Public License (MPL), Modified BSD License (BSD), and the Apache License. 

All software licences say what you can and cannot do with the software you have chosen to use. All open source licences clarify that you can use the software, freely distribute it, modify it, and distribute your newly derived work. But different licences have different goals and mechanisms of achieving those goals. In these short overviews of some of the popular open source licences, Rowan helps sort out whether the goals of the licence match up with your goals. 

For example, the famous GNU General Public License, or GPL for short, is used on more than two-thirds of open source projects. What are the key features that make the GPL so compelling? How does it contrast with a much more recent licence such as the Mozilla Public License? 

These short briefing notes will not tell you everything you need to know about open source licences. But they may be just what you need to get started with an overview of the open source licensing landscape. 

Why not start with "The GNU General Public License" today? 

For more information about OSS Watch, open source licences and other issues around open source software, visit OSS Watch online or write to info@oss-watch.ac.uk