For a list of licenses not specifically intended for software, see list of free content licenses. It provides the end user with the right to use a particular program or do anything else with the source code description. For nonlicensing questions, please see our general faq. The apache 2 license contains a number of key provisions including a patent grant that, in my experience, is often misunderstood. License shall mean the terms and conditions for use, reproduction, and distribution. Source form shall mean the preferred form for making modifications, including but not limited to software.
You can use, modify, and distribute apache licensed code in your closed source software. Open source licenses explained which one to use apache. Licenses that fall into this set include the new and simplified bsd licenses, the mit license, and the apache 2. Stuntman is an open source implementation of the stun protocol session traversal utilities for nat as specified in rfcs 5389, 5769, and 5780. The top opensource licenses, according to whitesource, are. The it automation and dev ops software vendor is making its entire software portfolio opensource and free to use under the apache 2. In the interest of this widespread cooperation, and encouraging open source usage, permissive licenses are winning. In the osis own words, these licenses allow software. This permissive license contains a patent license from the contributors of the code. Apache mit licensed libraries in a closedsource app. Is it legit to publish a software with an opensource license although there. For software licensed under the apache license version 2.
Many governments, international nonprofit organizations, multinational corporations and global open source communities rely on the osi, the osd, and osi approved open source licenses. Opensource software is available for virtually any application you could think of. Open source is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and so is the apache license. Weve compiled a list of your top 10 questions about the gpl license in the last post. At the same time, chef is introducing a new commercial management platform that ties together its various management and development applications through an entirely opensource software. Moreover, if you clarify your question, youll potentially get a clearer. These licenses encourage wider use of open source software, because they do.
This detailed guide gives you an effective open source licenses comparison. Youll be able to release the project under a different license if you ever need to. Jim jagielski, president and cofounder of the apache software foundation, discusses open source licenses and governance models. The source code of the licensed software is either included in the distribution, or at. Deployed broadly in production by the global 5000 and used by more than half of the fortune 500, chef develops 100 percent of its software as open source under the apache 2. Many developers and designers want to release their work into the world as opensource projects. This license confusion led some people to believe that all of android had been released under apache 2, even though there were significant portions of android released under gpl 2. Top 10 open source software licenses of 2016 and key trends. Why are the license files for the different apache software foundation projects different. This is a comparison of free and opensource software licenses.
So software that uses any gpllicensed component has to release its full source code and all rights to modify and distribute the entire code. Kafka is an apache software foundation project, and therefore remains under the apache 2. Opensource license guide firebear magento 2 extensions. Comparison of free and opensource software licenses. In this video, i will explain what are open source licenses and which one to use.
While many open source companies are adding restrictions to their software licensing agreement, yugabyte has decided to give away all its database software for free as open source. Developers need to start paying attention to licenses dev. How to choose the best license for your open source software project getting the right license for your open source project can mean the difference between success and failure for your software. A data scientists guide to open source licensing towards data. You have to give recipiets of your product p a copy of the apache 2. Can i close source of forked version of apache licensed software. If you have some code you are thinking of releasing under an open source license, and you want a quick overview of the broadstrokes differences between these licenses. Let me explain by exploring a portion of section 3 of the apache 2. It lets people do almost anything they want with your project, like making and distributing closed source versions. Even if these closed source products are based on open source software. How to choose the best license for your open source. As a developer of open source software, copyleft can significantly limit the appeal and. Software licenses like the tsl are the new reality for opensource.
They want others to be able to build on and share their code. Most surveys indicate that the vast majority of open source projects use the mit license, the apache license, and the gpl or their variants. Chef open sources 100 percent of its software under apache. Can i close source of forked version of apache licensed. What are the real life implications for an apache 2 license.
Subject to the terms and conditions of this license, each contributor hereby grants to you a perpetual, worldwide, nonexclusive, nocharge, royaltyfree, irrevocable except as stated in this section patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the work, where such license. The information i gathered up to this point is a bit confusing, but it looks like a simple and proper way to comply is to have an about section in the app or something like that and cite some details for each library that was used name and author mostly and provide links to the apache 2. The user is granted a license to any patent that covers the software. This feature is pretty close to the notion of copyleft. An uninstaller allows you to remove vertrigo from hard disc. Differences in distribution, linking, modification, private use of open source licenses like mit, gnu gpl, apache 2. Using an mitapache license in a closed source project vaadin. Vertrigo is a freeware compilation of free software under gpl, apache license. However, there are cases when opensource software does not possess any copyleft, which means that the owners dont care if you make the modification closedsource or opensource. It has no copyleft provisions, and it contains no political agenda. The apache license is a permissive free software license that is currently in its third iteration. All packages produced by the asf are implicitly licensed under the apache license, version 2. Heres the second post in our open source software license faq series. And of course, our new release doesnt affect the licensing for apache kafka at all.
And this can happen at a speed that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software. The apache license is a permissive free software license written by the apache software. Chef plates all software as opensource channelnomics. Should the user of the product meet the author and consider the software. Apache openoffice formerly known as is an opensource office productivity software suite containing word processor, spreadsheet. The open source initiative maintains a list of approved open source licenses, which comply with the osis definition of open source. Home random nearby log in settings about wikipedia disclaimers wikipedia. This license is terminated if the user sues anyone over patent infringement related to this software. Open source does not ask for much and the people certainly do not make a fortune with the work they put in. There are minor differences, but both are belonging to the same category of open source licenses, which do not have copyleft clause like gpl. Apache solr is an enterprise search platform written using apache lucene. This page answers most of the common queries that we receive about our licenses, licensing of our software, and packaging or redistributing of our software. You can do what you like with the software, as long as you include the required notices.
This result seems to strike a sensible balance between patent owners who contribute software to apache 2. Open source stack exchange is a question and answer site for people organizing, marketing or licensing open source development projects. The opensource community is vibrant because of this. People improve it, people adapt it, people fix bugs. Difference between different types of open sources licenses. Beerware is a somewhat tongueincheek term for software released under a very relaxed license beerware licensed software. With open source licenses explained here, it should help you choose the right open source license for your. The text should be enclosed in the appropriate comment syntax for the file format. Open source licenses grant permission for anybody to use, modify, and share licensed software for any purpose, subject to conditions preserving the provenance and openness of the software. That being said, some massive opensource projects use gpl, which is. If you were wondering whether you can use apache licensed code in your commercial applications and what do you need to do in order to comply with the license.
Can i use an open source library licensed under apache. Its a popular and widely deployed license backed by a. One business model that may be profitable is to build closed source software based on open source projects. You do have to comply with the terms of the apache license, which includes a disclosure requirement. Yugabyte db is now 100 percent open source under the. How the apache license allows open source to thrive sd times. How we are building a selfsustaining opensource business in the. When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code for a piece of software, the software evolves. Apache lucene is a highperformance, full featured text search engine library written in java. The open source initiative osi, open source definition osd and osi approved open source licenses are internationally recognized, and affirmed by the worlds leading open source software projects and companies. If its worth money to you its important to get your licensing right. You do have to comply with the terms of the apache license, which. This grant has a significant effect on making open source safe to use. To apply the apache license to your work, attach the following boilerplate notice, with the fields enclosed by brackets replaced with your own identifying information.
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