Adapted from Wikipedia 9-6-2014 This is a comparison of published free software licenses.
General comparison[edit | edit source]
The following table compares various features of each license and is a general guide to the terms and conditions of each license.
Note that a "yes" in either of the last two columns (Link with code using a different license and Release changes under a different license) is not an absolute answer, there may still be restrictions in the license related to this action. You should review the specific license terms[1] and refer to the reference table[2] for more details regarding a "yes" in these columns. Also note that "no" in Link with code using a different license-column is not absolute, e.g. for GPL, see: GPL compatibility.
| License | Author | Latest version | Publication date | Link with code using a different license | Release changes under a different license |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academic Free License | Lawrence E. Rosen | 3 | 2002 | Yes | Yes |
| Affero GPL | Free Software Foundation | 3 | 2007 | Only AGPLv3 + GPLv3 | No |
| Apache License | Apache Software Foundation | 2.0 | 2004 | Yes | Yes |
| Apple Public Source License | Apple Computer | 2.0 | August 6, 2003 | Yes | No |
| Artistic License | Larry Wall | 2.0 | 2000 | Yes | With restrictions |
| Berkeley Database License | Oracle Corporation | ? | February 7, 2008 | No | No |
| BSD license | Regents of the University of California | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Boost Software License | ? | 1.0 | August 17, 2003 | Yes | Yes |
| CeCILL | CEA / CNRS / INRIA | 2.0 | May 21, 2005 | No | No |
| Common Development and Distribution License | Sun Microsystems | 1.0 | December 1, 2004 | Yes | Yes |
| Code Project Open License | The Code Project | 1.0 | 2007 | Yes | No |
| Common Public License | IBM | 1.0 | May 2001 | Yes | No |
| Cryptix General License | Cryptix Foundation | ? | 1995 | Yes | Yes |
| Eclipse Public License | Eclipse Foundation | 1.0 | February 2004 | Yes | No |
| Educational Community License | ? | 1.0 | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Eiffel Forum License | NICE | 2 | 2002 | Yes | Yes |
| EUPL | European Commission | 1.1 | January 2009 | Yes | With an explicit compatibility list |
| Fair Licence | James W. Pye | N/A | 2004 | Yes | Yes |
| GNU General Public License | Free Software Foundation | 3.0 | June 2007 | No | No |
| GNU Lesser General Public License | Free Software Foundation | 3.0 | June 2007 | Yes | No |
| Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement | Hacktivismo/Cult of the Dead Cow | ? | November 26, 2002 | ? | ? |
| IBM Public License | IBM | 1.0 | August 1999 | Yes | Yes |
| Intel Open Source License | Intel Corporation | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| ISC license | Internet Systems Consortium | ? | June 2003 | Yes | Yes |
| LaTeX Project Public License | LaTeX project | 1.3c | ? | Yes | Yes |
| MIT license / X11 license | MIT | N/A[note 1] | 1988 | Yes | Yes |
| Mozilla Public License | Mozilla Foundation | 2.0 | January 3, 2012 | Yes | Limited |
| Netscape Public License | Netscape | 1.1 | ? | Yes | Limited |
| OPaC Free Public License | OPaC bright ideas | ? | 1998 | No | No |
| Open Software License | Lawrence Rosen | 3.0 | 2005 | Yes | No |
| OpenSSL license | OpenSSL Project | ? | ? | Yes | ? |
| PHP License | PHP Group | 3.01 | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Public Domain | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes | Yes |
| Python Software Foundation License | Python Software Foundation | 2 | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Q Public License | Trolltech | ? | ? | No | No |
| Sun Industry Standards Source License | Sun Microsystems | ? | ? | Yes | No |
| Sun Public License | Sun Microsystems | ? | ? | Yes | No |
| Sybase Open Watcom Public License | ? | ? | ? | Yes | No |
| W3C Software Notice and License | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| XCore Open Source License | XMOS | ? | February 2011 | Yes | Yes |
| XFree86 1.1 License | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| zlib/libpng license | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Zope Public License | Zope Foundation | 2.1 | ? | Yes | Yes |
- ↑ Was never revised.
Approvals[edit | edit source]
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. FSF approval means that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) considers the license free software as they don't approve of proprietary software, however they also recommend that licenses be at least "Compatible with GPL" and preferably copyleft (usually).
| License and specific version | FSF "approval"[3] | Compatible with GPL[4][5][6][7][8] | OSI approval[1] | Copyfree Initiative approval[9][10] | Debian approval[11][12] | Fedora Project approval[13] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academic Free License | Yes | No | Yes | No | ? | Yes |
| Affero GPL version 3 | Yes | Yes[note 1] | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Apache License version 1.1 and 1.0 | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Apache License version 2 | Yes | Yes[note 1] | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Apple Public Source License version 1.x | No[14] | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Apple Public Source License version 2.0 | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Artistic License 1.0 | No[note 2] | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Artistic License 2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Berkeley Database License | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Original BSD license | Yes | No | No[15] | No | Yes | Yes |
| Modified BSD license | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Boost Software License | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CeCILL | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Common Development and Distribution License | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Common Public License | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Creative Commons licenses (Tags: by & sa) | Yes | No | ? | No | ≥ v3.0 only[16] | Yes |
| Creative Commons licenses (Tags: nc & nd) | No | No | No | No | No[16] | by-nd only |
| Cryptix General License | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License (WTFPL) | Yes[note 3] | Yes | No[17] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Eclipse Public License | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Educational Community License | Yes | Yes[note 1] | Yes | ? | ? | Yes |
| Eiffel Forum License version 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Fair License | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes |
| GNU General Public License | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| GNU Lesser General Public License | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement | No | No | No | ? | No | No |
| IBM Public License | Yes | No | Yes | No[10] | Yes | Yes |
| Intel Open Source License | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No |
| ISC license | Yes[18] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| LaTeX Project Public License | Yes | No | Yes | No[10] | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft Public License | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes |
| Microsoft Reciprocal License | Yes | No | Yes | No | ? | Yes |
| MIT license | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mozilla Public License version 1.1 | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Mozilla Public License version 2.0 | Yes | Yes, unless marked "Incompatible with Secondary Licenses".[19] | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Netscape Public License | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | Yes |
| Open Software License | Yes | No | Yes | ? | No | Yes |
| OpenSSL license | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| PHP License | Yes | No | Yes | No | 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 | No | Yes | Yes |
| Q Public License | Yes | No | Yes | ? | No | Yes |
| Reciprocal Public License 1.5 | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | No |
| Sun Industry Standards Source License | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | Yes |
| Sun Public License | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | Yes |
| Sybase Open Watcom Public License | No | No | Yes | ? | No | No |
| W3C Software Notice and License | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| XFree86 1.1 License | Yes | Yes[note 1] | No | ? | ? | ? |
| zlib/libpng license | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Zope Public License version 1.0 | Yes | No | ? | No | ? | Yes |
| Zope Public License version 2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | Yes |
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Compatible with version 3 of the GPL but not version 2.
- ↑ The original version of the Artistic License is defined as non-free because it is overly vague, not because of the substance of the license. The FSF encourages projects to use the Clarified Artistic License instead. [1]
- ↑ Listed as WTFPL
Article comparison[20][edit | edit source]
| License | Version | Include license | Include source | Linking | State changes | Commercial use | Distribution | Modification | Patent grant | Private use | Sublicensing | No liability | No trademark |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apache License | 2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| BSD 3-Clause License | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||
| BSD 2-Clause License | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||||
| GNU General Public License | 2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ||
| GNU General Public License | 3.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| GNU Lesser General Public License | 2.1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| GNU Lesser General Public License | 3.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| MIT License | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||||
| Mozilla Public License | 2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Eclipse Public License | 1.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Affero General Public License | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||
| Generic copyright[note 1] | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
- ↑ For comparison purposes:
Copyright [year] [fullname]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Open Source Initiative. "The Approved Licenses". License Information. Open Source Initiative.
- ↑ Rusin, Zack. "Open Source Licenses Comparison". Retrieved 2006-10-16.
- ↑ Free Software Foundation. "Various Licenses and Comments about Them". Licenses. Free Software Foundation.
- ↑ Free Software Foundation. "To be GPL-Compatible has to be compatible with Licenses GNU GPLv3 and GNU GPLv2Template:Spaced ndashFree Software Foundation". Software Licenses. Free Software Foundation.
- ↑ Free Software Foundation. "GPL-Compatible Free Software LicensesTemplate:Spaced ndashFree Software Foundation". Software Licenses. Free Software Foundation.
- ↑ Free Software Foundation. "GPL-Incompatible Free Software LicensesTemplate:Spaced ndashFree Software Foundation". Software Licenses. Free Software Foundation.
- ↑ Free Software Foundation. "GPL-compatible Definition by FSFTemplate:Spaced ndashFree Software Foundation". GPL-compatible Definition. Free Software Foundation.
- ↑ Free Software Foundation. "GPL-compatible Definition previous version by FSFTemplate:Spaced ndashFree Software Foundation". GPL-compatible Definition. Free Software Foundation.
- ↑ Copyfree Initiative. "Copyfree Licenses". Copyfree Initiative.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Rejected Licenses". CopyFree Initiative. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
- ↑ Debian. "DebianTemplate:Spaced ndashLicense information". Licenses. Debian.
- ↑ "The DFSG and Software Licenses". Debian wiki.
- ↑ Fedora. "LicensingTemplate:Spaced ndashFedoraProject". Licenses. Fedora Project.
- ↑ "Apple Public Source License (APSL), version 1.x". Retrieved 2013-08-07.
- ↑ "3-clause BSD License at OSI".
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 "DFSGLicenses".
- ↑ "OSI Board Meeting Minutes, Wednesday, March 4, 2009".
- ↑ Free Software Foundation. "A Quick Guide to GPLv3". Licenses. Free Software Foundation.
- ↑ Mozilla Foundation. "MPL 2.0 FAQ". Licenses. Mozilla Foundation.
- ↑ Github, Inc.. "Licenses - ChooseALicense.com". Retrieved 2014-05-31.
