"Permissive" at least is an established term of art, meaning a license which does not impose many conditions on redistribution: https://fossa.com/blog/all-abou

"Permissive" at least is an established term of art, meaning a license which does not impose many conditions on redistribution: https://fossa.com/blog/all-about-permissive-licenses/ https://fossa.com/blog/all-about-permissive-licenses/ Even the GNU project uses it that way: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html You're right that "restrictive" is an unusual term in this context. The antonym of "permissive" is usually "copyleft".