4 ms·

Does anyone recommend some documentations to know all the licences vs open source? I'm thinking of launching one of our project in open source but don't want t

Does anyone recommend some documentations to know all the licences vs open source? I'm thinking of launching one of our project in open source but don't want to end up in this kind or articles ^^

colejohnson66 5y ago
Take a look at the popular licenses from the OSI: https://opensource.org/licenses https://opensource.org/licenses
glind72 5y ago
[dead]
warp 5y ago
https://opensource.org/licenses/category https://opensource.org/licenses/category is the list of all Open Source licenses vetted by the OSI (open source initiative). Other licenses may be open source, but you'd probably have to get lawyers involved to make sure. So it's better to just pick a license which the OSI considers Open Source. If you don't want to rely on just the OSI, you can also check what the Free Software Foundation, Debian and Red Hat think of the license you've picked.
- account42 5y ago
  Moreover, picking an existing popular open source license is important because a and b being opensource licenses does not mean that they are compatible, i.e. they could still have mutually-incompatible requirements that prevent anyone from releasing a combination of a-licensed and b-licensed code.
mindcrime 5y ago
Neither is super up to date, but these should cover the important stuff: - Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing[1] - Open Source Licensing[2] And then Producing OSS[3] also contains a (very) brief section on choosing a license. It's worth reading though, for other reasons. [1]: https://people.debian.org/~dktrkranz/legal/Understanding%20Open%20Source%20and%20Free%20Software%20Licensing.pdf https://people.debian.org/~dktrkranz/legal/Understanding%20O... [2]: https://www.rosenlaw.com/oslbook.htm https://www.rosenlaw.com/oslbook.htm [3]: https://producingoss.com/en/producingoss-letter.pdf https://producingoss.com/en/producingoss-letter.pdf
rectang 5y ago
For people in your position, I like Van Lindberg's book, Intellectual Property and Open Source: A Practical Guide to Protecting Code. https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/intellectual-property-and/9780596517960/ https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/intellectual-property-a... It will help you understand the relevant parts of the law (copyright, patent, trademark) as well as helping to differentiate between various types of Open Source licenses.
jayp1418 5y ago
Worth a read : http://netbsd.org/about/redistribution.html http://netbsd.org/about/redistribution.html

Does anyone recommend some documentations to know all the licences vs open source? I'm thinking of launching one of our project in open source but don't want to end up in this kind or articles ^^

colejohnson66 5y ago

Take a look at the popular licenses from the OSI: https://opensource.org/licenses https://opensource.org/licenses

glind72 5y ago

[dead]

warp 5y ago

https://opensource.org/licenses/category https://opensource.org/licenses/category is the list of all Open Source licenses vetted by the OSI (open source initiative). Other licenses may be open source, but you'd probably have to get lawyers involved to make sure. So it's better to just pick a license which the OSI considers Open Source. If you don't want to rely on just the OSI, you can also check what the Free Software Foundation, Debian and Red Hat think of the license you've picked.

account42 5y ago
Moreover, picking an existing popular open source license is important because a and b being opensource licenses does not mean that they are compatible, i.e. they could still have mutually-incompatible requirements that prevent anyone from releasing a combination of a-licensed and b-licensed code.

mindcrime 5y ago

Neither is super up to date, but these should cover the important stuff: - Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing[1] - Open Source Licensing[2] And then Producing OSS[3] also contains a (very) brief section on choosing a license. It's worth reading though, for other reasons. [1]: https://people.debian.org/~dktrkranz/legal/Understanding%20Open%20Source%20and%20Free%20Software%20Licensing.pdf https://people.debian.org/~dktrkranz/legal/Understanding%20O... [2]: https://www.rosenlaw.com/oslbook.htm https://www.rosenlaw.com/oslbook.htm [3]: https://producingoss.com/en/producingoss-letter.pdf https://producingoss.com/en/producingoss-letter.pdf

rectang 5y ago

For people in your position, I like Van Lindberg's book, Intellectual Property and Open Source: A Practical Guide to Protecting Code. https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/intellectual-property-and/9780596517960/ https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/intellectual-property-a... It will help you understand the relevant parts of the law (copyright, patent, trademark) as well as helping to differentiate between various types of Open Source licenses.

jayp1418 5y ago

Worth a read : http://netbsd.org/about/redistribution.html http://netbsd.org/about/redistribution.html