Understanding the Various Open Source Licenses

Open source licenses are licenses that comply with the Open Source Definition — in brief, they allow software to be freely used, modified, and shared. To be approved by the Open Source Initiative (also known as the OSI), a license must go through the Open Source Initiative's license review process.

1. What are the different types of open source licenses?
2. How many open source licenses are there?
3. What are the popular open source licenses?
4. What is licensing and its types?
5. Can you modify open source and sell it?
6. What are four of the major types of open source licenses?
7. What is the most permissive open source license?
8. Are open source licenses free?
9. Do you have to pay for a license to use open source software?
10. What are the applications of open source software?
11. What is license risk in Blackduck?
12. What is difference between open source and closed source?

What are the different types of open source licenses?

Four are examples of open source licenses (which allow you to reuse code to some extent), and one disallows any reuse whatsoever.

• Public domain. This is the most permissive type of software license. ...
• Permissive. ...
• LGPL. ...
• Copyleft. ...
• Proprietary.

How many open source licenses are there?

Types of open source license

The Open Source Initiative, an organization founded in 1998 to promote open source software and normalize the use of the term, has approved more than 80 open source licenses. These 80 licenses generally fall into one of two categories: permissive licenses and copyleft licenses.

What are the popular open source licenses?

Top open source licenses by risk

What is licensing and its types?

A licensing agreement is a legal contract by which one party that owns certain IP allows another party to use that IP. The party who owns the IP (the licensor) receives payment (a royalty) when the other party (the licensee) uses the IP. Licensing agreements can be broken down by the types of IP they license.

Can you modify open source and sell it?

You are allowed to sell open source software for any amount you like. You are allowed to charge reasonable cost for supplying the source code. You are not allowed to charge anything for the license. And of course modified open source software may only distributed with an open source license.

What are four of the major types of open source licenses?

The following OSI-approved licenses are popular, widely used, or have strong communities:

• Apache License 2.0.
• BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" license.
• BSD 2-Clause "Simplified" or "FreeBSD" license.
• GNU General Public License (GPL)
• GNU Library or "Lesser" General Public License (LGPL)
• MIT license.
• Mozilla Public License 2.0.

What is the most permissive open source license?

According to research by White Source, the most popular permissive licenses are MIT and Apache 2.0, with BSD in a distant third place. The GNU GPLv3 is the most popular copyleft license but is steadily losing market share compared to permissive licenses.

Are open source licenses free?

Open-source licensed software is mostly available free of charge, though this does not necessarily have to be the case. ... Licenses which only permit non-commercial redistribution or modification of the source code for personal use only are generally not considered as open-source licenses.

Do you have to pay for a license to use open source software?

An open source mindset

Unlike commercial software, users are not charged a licence fee for usage or for the volume of instances of the software they deploy. Instead, distro providers make money by charging for support and maintenance. The larger the deployment, the higher the annual charge.

What are the applications of open source software?

This software typically does not require a license fee. There are open source software applications for a variety of different uses such as office automation, web design, content management, operating systems, and communications.

What is license risk in Blackduck?

According to Black Duck, developers who use chunks of open-source code along with proprietary software in developing products may risk violating GPL or proprietary software licensing terms. Also at risk are the users of such products, this vendor claims.

What is difference between open source and closed source?

Open source software (OSS) refers to the software which uses the code freely available on the Internet. The code can be copied, modified or deleted by other users and organizations. ... Closed source software (CSS) is opposite to OSS and means the software which uses the proprietary and closely guarded code.