Explaining and understanding the gnu general public license. For example, if you write some software and release it under the gnu general public license a widelyused copyleft license, and then someone else modifies that software and distributes their modified version, the modified version must be licensed under the gnu gpl too including any new code written specifically to go into the modified. License compatibility is a legal framework that allows for pieces of software with different software licenses to be distributed together. So i use the gpl if i have to that is, if ive incorporated others gpl code, and i use the mit license otherwise. Busybox is licensed under the gnu general public license, version 2. The software included in this product contains ed software that is licensed under the gpl. Applying gplv3 termination to gplv2 licensed works by eben moglen november 27, 2017. However, gplv3 software cannot be included in apache projects.
The gnu gpl is the most widely used free software license and has a strong. If you use the gplv3 licensed version of uhd in your application, your application must then also be licensed under the gplv3. What you want is a free software license without copyleft. In this final part we ask the most important question of all. But you can include mit licensed parts or another gplcompatible license in the project. How the license would interact with other common free software licenses. The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. A quick guide to gplv3 gnu project free software foundation. Free software licence openfoam is distributed by the openfoam foundation and is freely available and open source, licensed under the gnu general public licence. To prevent this, the gpl assures that patents cannot be used to render. The kernel itself is still licensed under the gplv2, and thirdparty software that runs on top of the platform can be distributed under pretty much any license, including commercial and copyleft. The boilerplate can be found at the end of the gnu gplv3 license.
Wikipedias content is mostly under the creative commons bysa license, which has similar sharealike features to the gpl. The gnu affero general public license version 3 agplv3 is a copyleft license nearly identical to the gplv3. Lawsuit threatens to break new ground on the gpl and. However, free here does not essentially mean freewareit can also be a paid software. The gnu affero general public license3 agpl is a special license in the family of open source licenses, creating risks and opportunities that do not exist with most other open source licenses. Jan 18, 2017 the gnu affero general public license version 3 agplv3 is a copyleft license nearly identical to the gplv3.
You are free to reproduce and distribute original or derivative works of any software licensed under the mspl license. Applying gplv3 termination to gplv2licensed works by eben moglen november 27, 2017. The free software foundation may publish revised andor new versions of the. Are there any resources for choosing or creating a commercial software license. Frequently asked questions about the gnu licenses gnu project. There are multiple variants of the gnu gpl, each with different requirements. One popular r software tool, shiny, licenses its package as a whole under gplv3, but the server which one needs to run its apps is licensed under the agpl. The apache software foundation and the free software foundation agree that the apache license 2.
When providing a license for your product, you dont simply say. A copy of that license is included in this document on page x. When a person or company wants to use a project licensed underfor examplegpl v3, apache 2. Some of the mostinstalled open source software is gpl licensed, such as linux, wordpress, and wikipedias underlying software, mediawiki. You may obtain the complete corresponding source code from us for a period of three years after our last shipment of this product, which will be no earlier than 20110801, by. This article concludes a five part series on the latest version of the most commonly used software license. Anyone can copy, modify and distribute this software. The affero general public license affero gpl and informally affero license is a free software license.
Permissions of this copyleft license are conditioned on making available. Gnu lesser general public license version 3 open source. If some network client software is released under agplv3, does it. When distributing derived works, the source code of the work must be made available under the same license. Can i use the gplv3 license for my commercial application. The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to. Most gpl version 2 software is actually licensed as gpl version 2 or any later version, or. Open source licenses are licenses that comply with the open source definition in brief, they allow software to be freely used, modified, and shared. I am writing software licensed under mit and including gpl. Insert the word lesser before general in all three places in the boilerplate notice to make sure that you refer to the gnu lgplv3 and not the gnu gplv3. The following licenses are sorted by the number of conditions, from most gnu agplv3 to none unlicense. It applies to a given file the runtime library that bears a notice placed by the holder of the file stating that the file is governed by gplv3 along with this exception. The first version of the affero general public license agplv1, was published by affero, inc. Aug 26, 2008 the software included in this product contains ed software that is licensed under the gpl.
The creative commons attributionsharealike international license version 4. The need for such a framework arises because the different licenses can contain contradictory requirements, rendering it impossible to legally combine source code from separately licensed software in order to create and publish a new program. In august 20, according to black duck software, the websites data shows that the gpl license family is used by 54% of opensource projects, with a breakdown of the individual licenses shown in the following table. If your software is licensed under the terms of the gpl, it is free. Lots of great free software is available under this license, with strong communities surrounding it. This page discusses in practical terms how the gplv3 would be applied in particular scenarios. Top 10 apache license questions answered whitesource. The program refers to any able work licensed under this license. When versata software sued ameriprise financial services for breaching its software license, it unwittingly unearthed a gpl violation of its own and touched off another lawsuit that could prove to be a leading case on free and open source software licensing. You can license your commercial application under the gplv3 license as long as you comply with the terms of the gplv3 license. License bitcoin unlimited software under gplv3 submitted by freetrader 7 december 2018 summary in the interest of ensuring that the developmental playing field between bitcoin unlimited and corporations using its software remains level, re. I currently have an open source project that is licensed under gplv3. Nov 02, 2016 gpl, or the gnu general public license, is an open source license meant for software.
The agplv3s section states an additional condition not present in gplv2 or gplv3. User products is a term specially defined in the license. Why dash uses the mit license and not a copyleft gpl. 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. Unfortunately, and for reasons that i dont understand, the r core considers the mit license to be not a proper license but rather a template for a license. You can freely use, modify, distribute and sell a software licensed under the apache license without worrying about the use of software.
This post takes a look at the legal issues raised by both cases and what they mean for foss producers and users. Both licenses have the same copyleft scope, but materially differ in one important way. If copyleft is not desired i suggest you to use the liblibpng license. The free software foundation considers the apache license, version 2. How you would use a work licensed under version 2 or any later version under version 3. Frequently answered questions open source initiative. The gpl is viral in that it extends to derivative works. However, a later study in 20 showed that software licensed under the gpl license family has increased, and that even the data from black duck software has shown a total. You can distribute your application using a gpl library commercially, but you must also provide the source code. However, oracle also make the connector available under their universal foss exception, which allows the code to be used with any license approved by the fsf as a free license. The license was originally written by richard stallman of the free software foundation fsf for the gnu project, and grants the recipients of a computer program the rights. Releasing your project that uses infinite scroll under the gplv3, in turn, requires your project to be licensed under the gplv3. Starting from gplv3, it is unilaterally compatible for materials like text and other media under creative commons attributionsharealike 4.
A practical guide to gpl compliance software freedom law. The free software foundation may publish revised andor new versions of the gnu lesser general public license from time to time. Top 10 gnu gpl license questions answered whitesource. How to add additional terms as permitted by section 7. Frequently asked questions about the gnu licenses gnu. We hope that this change in gplv3 will foster more cooperation and sharing within the free software community. You may copy, distribute and modify the software as long as you track changesdates of in source files and keep modifications under gpl. Ianal, but it is pretty clear that this license would fall apart if the owner attempted to enforce it.
Can you distribute software under gpl v3 and require users. Busybox is licensed under the gnu general public license version 2, which is often abbreviated as gplv2. License bitcoin unlimited software under gplv3 submitted by freetrader 7 december 2018 summary in the interest of ensuring that the developmental playing field between bitcoin unlimited and corporations using its software remains level, re license the bitcoin unlimited software under. While sun officials would not confirm the plan to duallicense opensolaris under the cddl and gplv3, tom. A practical guide to gpl compliance software freedom law center. The microsoft public license is a free and open source software license released by microsoft, which wrote it for its projects that were released as open source. There are two main elements to the gpl, designed to prevent open source software being exploited by their inclusion within nonfree, closed sourced software products. Lawsuit threatens to break new ground on the gpl and software. The gnu gpl is the most widely used free software license and has a strong copyleft requirement.
Id like to dual license it, so i can offer it for commercial use. The software freedom law center provides practical advice for developers about including permissively licensed source. Jun 29, 2007 the gnu general public license gnu gpl or gpl is a widely used free software license, which guarantees end users the freedom to run, study, share and modify the software. Jun 29, 2007 the gnu general public license is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works. Can you distribute software under gpl v3 and require users to. This is the same license the linux kernel is under, so you may be somewhat familiar with it by now. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. And so if you want to use the mit license, you must include a license file in your package that includes. Compatibility means that a person can now take a work they received under the terms of cc bysa 4.
Gnu general public license, version 3 spdx short identifier. By contrast, the gnu general public license is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a. The free software foundation recommends taking the additional step of adding a boilerplate notice to the top of each file. The following 153 pages are in this category, out of 153 total. Art is open source software licensed under the gplv3 license. Revised versions of the gnu lesser general public license. You may discover, however that these terms do not work so well in your favor, since one of the terms prevents you from a. Busybox is licensed under the gnu general public license.
Pages in category software using the gpl license wikipedia. If you have licensed software youve written under gpl version 2, and you are the original licensor of that software, you may wish to relicense your software. If you are okay with this, feel free to use infinite scroll under the gplv3, without purchasing a commercial license. You cant take gpl licensed parts and relicense them under the mit license, since that is against the gpl terms. When people distribute user products that include software under gplv3, section 6 requires that they provide you with information necessary to modify that software. The apache license is a permissive open source software license so you can release your modified version of the apache licensed product under any license of your choice. If im using a gpl 3 library in my project, can i license. Apr 14, 2016 if your software includes gpl software, there is a strong likelihood that you are obligated by the terms of the gpl to license your code under the same gpl license.
If youre not incorporating code that is licensed under the gpl, i recommend going with the mit license. Apache 2 software can therefore be included in gplv3 projects, because the gplv3 license accepts our software into gplv3 works. You may just put the license as a comment on those source code files. The following licenses are in use for r or associated software such as packages. If you want to link with proprietary software, then use the gnu lgpl. On thursday, october 8, creative commons cc announced the addition of the gnu general public license version 3. Feb 24, 2020 when a person or company wants to use a project licensed underfor examplegpl v3, apache 2. This license identifier refers to the choice to use code under gpl3. Historically, the gpl license family has been one of the most popular software licenses in the free and open. Because, gnu gpl, gnu lgpl and gnu fdl, allow commercial use. If you want to create a proprietary product with ettus research hw sw, you need to use the alternative license, which was created specifically for this purpose.