This is a comparison of published free software licenses.
Contents |
General comparison
The following table compares various features of each license and is a general guide to the terms and conditions of each license.[1]
Approvals
This table lists for each license what organizations from the free software community have approved it - be it as a "free software" or as an “open source” license - and how those organizations categorize it. Organizations usually approve specific versions of software licenses.
| License and specific version | FSF approval[2] | Compatible with GPL | OSI approval[3] | DFSG approval[4][5] | Fedora Project approval[6] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academic Free License | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Apache License version 1 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Apache License version 1.1 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Apache License version 2 | Yes | Yes2 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Apple Public Source License version 1.x | No | No | ? | No | No |
| Apple Public Source License version 2.0 | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Artistic License 1.0 | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Clarified Artistic License (draft 2.0) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Artistic License 2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Berkeley Database License | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| original BSD license | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| modified BSD license | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Boost Software License | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Common Development and Distribution License | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Common Public License | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Creative Commons licenses (Tags: by & sa) | Yes | No | ? | ≥ v3.0 only[7] | Yes |
| Creative Commons licenses (Tags: nc & nd) | No | No | ? | No[7] | by-nd only |
| Cryptix General License | Yes | Yes | No | ? | Yes |
| Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License (WTFPL) | Yes4 | Yes | ? | ? | Yes |
| Eclipse Public License | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Educational Community License | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Eiffel Forum License version 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GNU General Public License | Yes | Yes3 | Yes3 | Yes | Yes |
| GNU Lesser General Public License | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement | No | No | No | ? | No |
| IBM Public License | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Intel Open Source License | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No |
| ISC license | Yes[8] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| LaTeX Project Public License | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft Public License | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Microsoft Reciprocal License | Yes | No | Yes | ? | No |
| MIT license | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mozilla Public License | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Netscape Public License | Yes | No | No | ? | Yes |
| Open Software License | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| OpenSSL license | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| PHP License | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | v3.0/3.01 only, others are unknown |
| POV-Ray-License | No | No | No | No | ? |
| Python Software Foundation License 2.0.1; 2.1.1 and newer | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Q Public License | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Sun Industry Standards Source License | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Sun Public License | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Sybase Open Watcom Public License | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No |
| W3C Software Notice and License | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| XFree86 1.1 License | Yes | Yes2 | No | ? | ? |
| zlib/libpng license | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Zope Public License version 1.0 | Yes | No | ? | ? | Yes |
| Zope Public License version 2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes |
| License and specific version | FSF approval | Compatible with GPL | OSI approval | DFSG approval | Fedora Project approval |
Notes
- Note 1: Was never revised.
- Note 2: Compatible to version 3 of the GPL but not compatible to version 2.
- Note 3: The original version of the Artistic License is defined as non-free because it is overly vague, not because the substance of the license. The FSF encourages projects to use the Clarified Artistic License instead.[1]
- Note 4: Listed as WTFPL.
References
- ^ Rusin, Zack. "Open Source Licenses Comparison". http://developer.kde.org/documentation/licensing/licenses_summary.html. Retrieved 2006-10-16.
- ^ Free Software Foundation. "Various Licenses and Comments about Them". Licenses. Free Software Foundation. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html.
- ^ Open Source Initiative. "The Approved Licenses". License Information. Open Source Initiative. http://www.opensource.org/licenses/.
- ^ Debian. "Debian - License information". Licenses. Debian. http://www.debian.org/legal/licenses/.
- ^ "The DFSG and Software Licenses". Debian wiki. http://wiki.debian.org/DFSGLicenses.
- ^ Fedora. "Licensing - FedoraProject". Licenses. Fedora Project. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing.
- ^ a b "DFSGLicenses". http://wiki.debian.org/DFSGLicenses.
- ^ Free Software Foundation. "A Quick Guide to GPLv3". Licenses. Free Software Foundation. http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.html#new-compatible-licenses.
See also
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