Choose A Licence

By answering a few questions, this site wants to help you choosing a licence.

Number Question/Heading Answers
1 If somebody modifies my code, they must use the same licence.
  • Yes (copyleft)
  • No (permissive)
  • Do not allow modifications.
2 Everything which uses this work must use the same licence.
  • Yes, be viral
  • No, allow integration, e.g. linking
  • This is just about a program, not a library
  • This is about media, not code
3 No DRM, locked-down firmware, patent suite
But broader licence compatibility.
  • Yes, please
  • No, I do not care about this
7 GPL v3 General Public Licence Version 3
8 GPL v2 General Public Licence Version 2
9 No DRM, locked-down firmware, patent suite
But broader licence compatibility.
  • Yes, please
  • No, I do not care about this
10 MPL Mozilla Public Licence 2.0. More liberal than LGPL, but not permissive.
11 LGPL v2 Lesser General Public Licence Version 2
12 Creative Commons Share-alike
20 Users get the rights to potential patents.
  • Yes, users should get patent protection as well
  • No, patent rights must be acquired separately
21 Apache Licence 2 Include the following text into each of your source files.
Copyright $YEAR $COPYRIGHT_HOLDER

		Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
		you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
		You may obtain a copy of the License at

		http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

		Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
		distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
		WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
		See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
		limitations under the License.
22 Allow use of copyright holder's name for promotion.
  • Yes, let them use my brand
  • No, only on a per-case permission
23 BSD 3-clause
		Copyright (c) $YEAR $COPYRIGHT_HOLDER
		All rights reserved.

		Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

		Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
		Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
		Neither the name of the $ORGANIZATION nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

		THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
		
24 ISC

Currently favored by OpenBSD over BSD 2-clause. Shorter than BSD, MIT, X11, but not as popular yet.

		Copyright (c) $YEAR $COPYRIGHT_HOLDER

		Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.

		THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
		
50 This is not about source code?
  • Yes, it is about source code.
  • No, it is about media (picture,movie,prosa,poetry,etc.)
51 No licence. In this case, copyright laws are sufficient.
52 Creative Commons No-derivatives

 

More Questions

Should you put a licence header into every source file?
It is not a requirement of any licence. In an ideal world, it would not be necessary. However, source files are copied around in reality, so at least one lawyer advises to put a licence header into every source file.
What is copyleft vs permissive?
Two big categories of Open Source licences. Copyleft licences (GPL,MPL) require to pass on the source code. Permissive licences (BSD,MIT,Apache) can be silently used in proprietary software.
What about licence $X?
This wizard is opinionated. I tried to minimize the number of licences to keep this simple. If you have a good reason to include a certain licence, please, write me an email.

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