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I have forked a BSD-licensed project and made significant rewrites. In terms of numbers of characters, around 70% of the code was now written by me. I want to respect the original author's copyright while also receiving attribution for my work. Originally I intended to ask the best way to do that, but I see that according to this question I can just duplicate the original author's copyright line in the license file and put in my name and the year(s) of my work. Cool.
Now my question has to do with this line:
Neither the name of the PROJECTNAME nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
My rewrites have involved a significant change to the scope and direction of the application. I felt it appropriate to change the name of the app to better represent what my fork is. So:
Is changing the name cool? I don't see anything in the license that would prohibit it.
How best to represent this in the license? Should I replace the old project name with the new one? Should I modify that line to say "neither the name of the OLDPROJECTNAME, the name of the NEWPROJECTNAME, nor the names of its contributors..."?
I understand that no one here is going to give legal advice! I'm just looking for some general guidelines and best practices from the open source community.
You can change the name of the project, of course, BSD license being one of the most permissive ever, after public domain maybe.
It's not cool to keep the old name since you rewrote most of the code. And not fair for the original dev team.
If you are familiar with GPL-based licenses, they mostly have some clauses to make mentioning original authors and keeping the license mandatory. With BSD style, those aren't a problem anymore.
My answers are:
Consider yourself being an author of a fork, derived from any initial software but now doing things differently.
I guess you can attach any license you want now, since YOU are the author. Not sure about that though.
I want to respect the original author's copyright while also receiving attribution for my work.
It's nice you want to, but actually it's even a must. If you don't respect the usage terms given under BSD you would not have the right to rewrite the code (which you already did).
There are multiple ways how you can make the licensing of a software visible, whichever you have with your software make clear:
What is the name of the work (to make it identifiable) and who is the author of it, when was it written.
As your software makes use of other software, make clear under which license that other software is, which software it is, by whom it has been written etc..
If you want to allow your own changes and extendings to be re-used upstream in the project you forked, you should choose the same license for your work.
I felt it appropriate to change the name of the app to better represent what my fork is.
Is changing the name cool? I don't see anything in the license that would prohibit it.
The original usage conditions don't forbid you to change the project name. As you actually forked it, it makes very much sense that you change the name. Even if it's PROJECTNAME-user1311904-fork only or a completely different name.
How best to represent this in the license? Should I replace the old project name with the new one? Should I modify that line to say "neither the name of the OLDPROJECTNAME, the name of the NEWPROJECTNAME, nor the names of its contributors..."?
Actually as outlined above you have two licenses. You have got your license (the main license) which is for "your" software. And then you write that part of your software is licensed as. Then the original terms of the software your forked from are listed (as you got them from the original author). So it's clear what the licensing of your software is.
If you want to document this really good, you should put everything under version control, so it's technically possible to obtain the information what the original code was and what your changes are. So it's absolutely safely documented with the version control system to which part which license/es apply/ies.
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I am a web developer, and I don't have enough knowledge about software licenses. I wish to publish some of my works, and I need to select licenses for them. My software product is free of cost, but I have some restrictions on distribution/modification of the code.
It’s free of cost (but donations are acceptable).
The source code is freely available. You can use, customize or edit/remove code (as long as the basic nature of the software is not changed).
You don’t have any permission to change the product name.
There are some libraries and classes which are in a folder called “myname”. You don’t have permission to rename “myname”.
You can contribute any additions or modifications to my project, to the original source repository (the contributor’s name/email/site link will be listed in the credit file).
You can’t remove the original author’s name from the license.
You can put the license file or license code anywhere in the project file or folder.
You can redistribute this code as free or commercial software.
Are all these restrictions valid? Given these restrictions, which license should I use?
My main intention is to make the product more popular with free source code while ensuring the original author is not ignored. The product is open.
Thank you all; the above points are because of my lack of knowledge of license terms.
You can help me to correct or remove some of the above points. What I’m basically looking for is in the paragraph above.
I don't think the following are currently covered by any license I am familiar with:
Don't deviate from the basic nature of the software.
You can use/customize/redistribute as free or commercial, but you can't change the name.
I'd argue that while the product may be free and "source code available", that what you're describing is not "Open Source". Notably, you're not letting people fork and/or repurpose the code, both of which are main features of an Open Source code base.
By retaining copyright, no one can "take your name off" of your code, as they don't possess copyright, but not being able to rename the project, or change the names of folders, that's pretty extreme.
So, I would suggest you think through your motivations behind releasing the code and from where these restrictions originiate.
As others have noted, you have some rather odd requirements:
“Don’t deviate the basic nature of the software.” (Do you specify the “basic nature of the software” in the program itself, and are you going to argue in court over something so vague?)
“You don’t have any permission to change the product name.” (Usually, if anything, the opposite is required: if you change it, you have to change the name, so people don’t think that the modifications represent your work.)
“There are some libraries and classes which are in a folder called ‘myname’: you don't have permission to rename ‘myname’.” (Similar to the first, but more concrete — though I’m not sure what the point of this is.)
Based on these requirements, I think the license which fits most closely with your stated desires is the GNU Free Documentation License. As indicated by the title, it’s almost never used for source code of programs.
It is the only license I know of which allows you to prohibit users from changing or improving specific parts of the work. For example, I think you could say that the folder “myname” is an “invariant section” (note that I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice).
It’s not compatible with the GPL, and (the way you’d use it) it’s not DFSG-free. It’s rarely used for software, so distributors and contributors might have trouble understanding how to apply it. In short, you probably wouldn’t be making any friends with this route.
BSD license should cover this. I have chosen it for my open-source stuff too.
As written your requirements don't fit into any specific license out there (that I know of), and since you are not looking to make money, getting a lawyer to draft one would be rather expensive, and fundamentally counter-productive.
I suggest you look at licenses for different open source projects out there and see which one matches closely with what you want, and use that.
To get everything you want you will probably have to write your own license. This is not necessarily in your best interests. You are going to have to make a choice between popularity and control:
If you use an established license, you will have a very wide audience for your work, which will have a chance to become popular.
If you insist on certain restrictions (the name can't be changed) you will keep greater control, but you will lose potential users; because lots of organizations won't look at software with a nonstandard license.
Your requirements are very close to BSD, and not that different from MIT. I recommend you browse the popular licenses blessed by the Open Source Initiative and choose the one you feel is closest to your desires. I've checked your edits, and if you insist that I make a recommendation, for your wishes I recommend the Simplified BSD license. It's a good, popular license that is often used by developers who want their work to be very widely deployed.
If you ask people in a README file not to fork your software and change the name, as a matter of personal preference rather than licensing terms, most people will honor your wishes.
I think you will have a hard time finding an existing license to fit your needs because you seem to require two separate sets of permissions: a MIT-like set of permissions for the source in general, with the exception of a locked-down "myname" folder. You may be better off separating your code into two separate parts, each with a different license. The MIT license seems to fit your conditions for the bulk of the code (except for the "basic nature of the software" statement, I'm not sure what you mean by that). The MIT license requires the copyright statement bearing your name to be retained in all copies of the source, so this would address the concerns you bring up in your first edit. Depending on the particular reasons why you need to add special restrictions for the "myname" folder, you may have to write a custom license (you can take an existing one that's close and simply tweak it) that governs only that folder. Your entire project doesn't have to fall under a single license.
3) You don't have any permission to
change the product name.
You might be asking for problems with this one. If someone takes your code, enhances it, and releases it with the same name then you will have two very different programs out there with the same name. This is very confusing for potential users. Is the the original version? The version that was modified with a German-language interface? The version that has a fix for a specific bug? When they all have the same name, it's difficult to determine. If a user has a bad experience with a particularly buggy (or worse, virus-infected) derivative work, they will be unlikely to use any version of your software because it appears to be the same program as the buggy version.
I get the impression that you are mostly wanting to avoid having your work copied and completely re-branded without any acknowledgment of your involvement. I might suggest that instead of prohibiting name changes, require that derivative works reference your original product name (for example, "ShinyNewProgram - Powered By YourOriginalName"). Many open-source projects trademark their product names and a provision like your #3 would then be a violation of trademark law; the more common solution is to require a new name (to differentiate it from the original) and to require clear attribution of the original work.
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When I'm about to write a short algorithm, I first check in the base class library I'm using whether the algorithm is implemented in it. If not, I often do a quick google search to see if someone has done it before (which is the case, 19 times out of 20).
Most of the time, I find the exact code I need. Sometimes it's clear what license applies to the source code, sometimes not. It may be GPL, LGPL, BSD or whatever. Sometimes people have posted a code snippet on some random forum which solves my problem.
It's clear to me that I can't reuse the code (copy/paste it into my code) without caring about the license if the code is in some way substantial. What is not clear to me is whether I can copy a code snippet containing 5 lines or so without doing a license violation.
Can I copy/paste a 5-line code snippet without caring about the license? What about one-liner? What about 10 lines? Where do I draw the line (no pun intended)?
My second problem is that if I have found a 10-line code snippet which does exactly what I need, but feel that I cannot copy it because it's GPL-licensed and my software isn't, I have already memorized how to implement it so when I go around implementing the same functionality, my code is almost identical to the GPL licensed code I saw a few minutes ago. (In other words, the code was copied to my brain and my brain after that copied it into my source code).
Edit: I'm located in Sweden. It makes me even more confused that this is country-dependent. What if I re-use a piece of code (in a manner which is legal where I live) and I sell this source code to a company in a country where the re-use of code would be illegal.
I am not a lawyer - but i've recently been involved in looking at issues like this. Copying and pasting code from blogs can certainly be considered copyright infringement unless the blog states the license that the code is under and how it can be reused.
I'd recommend using sample code like this only to give you the general process/idea for a solution - then reimplement the idea from your own head and in your own style.
As also suggested, mailing for permission is another alternative. Most people blogging code are open to having it reused.
On the first problem: silly as that law may be, technically copyright applies to any expression, and applies without requiring the author of the expression to assert it explicitly; if there is no license, you might in theory be liable for copyright violation even for small snippets. Possible defenses are based on fair use, but (again, in theory) you might end up in court to defend yourself with that (your fair use claim does not stop the copyright holder from suing -- nothing does, except common sense -- but the judge might decide in your favor if he or she decides the use is indeed fair).
Your second problem hinges on whether your code is a derivative work of the snippet, another thorny concept which mingles with the "fair use" issue. Again, the only definitive answer is the one a judge gives in the specific case ("definitive" unless overruled by an appeals court, actually;-).
Remember, most lawmakers are lawyers by training: sometimes one may wonder if they make the laws subtle and difficult just in order to ensure lawyers will always have plenty of jobs;-).
It largly depends on country. In some countries programs are threated as pices of literature so small amount of 'quote' is allowed as a fair use.
Unfortunatly you have to state which country you live in and check what's the local copyright law. In most cases cheaper solution is mailing author for permission (especially if it is open source project).
Copyright law (as in the Berne Convention) protects even small pieces of writing to some extent, so you'd have to consult somebody knowledgeable in the law where you live. There may be something available locally in a library, or you could consult a lawyer.
As far as what happens when you do something legal in Sweden and send it to me in the US where it might be illegal, I don't really know. I think I'd be the one in legal trouble, although there's the Dmitri Sklyarov case to worry about (he did something legal in Russia, came to the US, and was arrested under legal circumstances I don't really understand). Again, consult a lawyer.
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My question consists of multiple points that are inherently related, I apologize for that. I tried splitting it up a little more, but I would keep repeating myself.
What exactly is required to apply an open source license to a code base that is my Intellectual Property?
A lot of Open Source projects include a full copy of the license somewhere in a root directory but do also have some sort of file header including a license description, disclaimer and a copyright notice. Is that really necessary or does it depend on the license type?
If someone else contributes changes to this file, does he need to be named in the copyright notice too?
Disclaimer
I am not a lawyer, so you should really consult with one to get absolutely correct answers here.
To the best of my knowledge...
Whenever you author something, whether it be code or anything else, you automatically become the copyright owner of that work (unless you've signed an agreement whereby it is "work for hire").
As the copyright owner, you can apply whatever license you like. The fact is that, if you don't give out a license, then no one has any right to use, copy, modify, distribute, etc. your coyrighted work. So, users need your license to have permission to use the project (if you don't give a license, it cannot, contrary to popular belief, be presumed public domain). So, you don't need to worry about people ignoring the license... if they can't point to a license where you grant them rights to use your software, as the copyright owner, you can sue them for using your copyrighted work without your express permission to do so.
It is typical in open source projects to place the license in a file named "LICENSE" or "COPYING" in the top-level directory of the project. I suggest that you stick to this convention, since that is where people will look for the license. It is also good to indicate what the license is on the project's website, so that people don't have to download your whole project before they know what the license agreement is.
It is not necessary to include a full copy of the license in each source code file, although this is fairly common practice. Keep in mind, though, that putting a full copy of the license (or at least some indication of copyright ownership and the name of the license, if it is a well-known license) in any header files that you install will avoid any confusion as to where the header files originated, so it is reasonable to do that.
If you own the project and others contribute in a fashion similar to "work for hire", then it is not necessary to name the contributors. However, you should make it explicit (and get a permanent record of an agreement from contributors) that you will remain the sole copyright owner of the project, despite contributions made. Otherwise, the contributors do have copyright ownership over the files/code that they contributed.
One last thing, not related to the question... I highly recommend that you avoid GPL and LGPL, and go for a more permissive license (e.g. MIT, New BSD, Simplified BSD), as the former will limit the adoptability of your code, and projects with more liberal licenses, if they do become adopted in the industry, have the potential to be backed by the industry (e.g. the Apache Foundation has strong industry support, because, unlike GNU/FSF which mistakenly views open source and closed source as enemies, sees them as collaborators, and so uses licenses that allow their projects to be widely adopted by the industry world).
Disclaimer: IANAL. That said, here are some random thoughts on the topic:
The term "Intellectual Property" bundles together many kinds of law: patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secrets, among others. Applying a license to a work you create will affect how your work can be used. Because each license allows for different uses of your code, how you apply the license is usually specific to which license you choose. For example, information about how to license your code under the Apache 2.0 license can be found at http://www.apache.org/licenses/. Note that projects managed by the Apache Software Foundation also require each contributor to grant the ASF copyright for the work. Granting of copyright is separate from the license.
I'd recommend reading Van Lindberg's "Intellectual Property and Open Source" to learn some terminology, and if you have significant commercial interests related to the code, spend a few hours with a lawyer.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, the below is simply my understanding of OSS licensing. If I'm wrong, I'd appreciate any corrections.
Clearly state (on your project website, in source code, documentation, splash screen, about dialog, etc.) that the project is licensed under whichever license you select.
Considering the nature of open source, if a portion of your project is used in a different project owned by someone else (e.g. some useful utility class), having the "basics" of the license as part of your source code's header text makes it clear which license governs the use of that specific source file, and who owns the copyright on that portion of code in the project as a whole.
Yes, unless they have supplied you with documentation stating that they have transferred copyright to you (I believe some larger projects require contributors to do this?).
For an example of applying an OSS license to a project, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-howto.html
A license is simply the rules you expect others to abide by if they do anything (use it, modify it, post it, make fun of it, whatever) with your code.
a) You can put what you want, but to be taken seriously, you may use a license that is already nicely written and accepted ... check opensource dot org /licenses/category for a (loong) list
b) To decide which type of license, check out this recent aricle: http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/features/guestopinions/blog/ringing-in-the-new-year-with-clean-intellectual-property/?cs=38892&page=1 . Common ones are GPL V2, LGPL, Apache, New BSD- check out the summary matrix on Page 2 of the article
c) make sure your software doesn't include code from other open source or 3rd party, otherwise you'll be claiming theirs as yours- not a good idea! There are tools you can use on trial basis to scan your code.
d) put the text of the license in a License.txt or Copyright.txt file in the folder. Also add a simple (or complex, if you wish) header to the source files as Kimvais mentions in the previous post.
Good luck.
Short non-lawyer answer;
Nothing except making it clear to anyone that you, the sole author of the code, license the code under whatever terms.
It is advisable to have the license file in the root directory. I would personally add in the "top comments" of all files the line Copyright 2010 <Your Name>. Released under <license name> in <Your country>. The last part is so that you can claim that the license was never meant to be interpreted under any other law than your local (so you can get a competent lawyer in your home country in the event that everything goes wrong)
I would say that this depends on the license you choose
For further info, read this book - or consult a lawyer with experience of software licenses.
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We are developing a closed-source proprietary product that uses quite a few open source projects and we have not been methodically cataloging them, along with their licenses. Now we are trying to build a deployment package and we'd like to get into compliance. What's the easiest way to accomplish this?
Should we make one big text file with all the license information or should it be separate files for each open source project or each license? Do we have to include the actual file that came with the project? Does it have to be in the same directory as the project's files?
I was thinking of a simpler approach but I'm not sure if it complies. What if we just identified all the different licenses (not projects) and make up one big text file with all the license verbiage for each one, and at the top say something like "Product XYZ is proprietary software which incorporates open source software that is covered by the following licenses." (The individual open source projects would not be identified by name).
Or alternatively, the same as above, except identifying each project by name, along with their license, but all in 1 file?
Talk to a lawyer.
You can start by gathering license information for each package that you use and reading them. Many licenses (Boost license) are quite clear and permissive while others (GPLv3) are not so clear. Most of the time an attribution in your documentation will suffice. If you are distributing source, then you will likely need to distribute each license file along with either the source of each package or a reference to where it can be downloaded.
In any case, read the licenses and then talk to a lawyer.
You read the license for each component you're using, understand it, and do whatever it says is necessary to comply.
we have not been methodically cataloging them, along with their licenses.
You really should. The last thing you want to to find out right before you ship that one of the components you're using has an incompatible license, or onerous terms.
IANAL but each license typically tells you exactly what you have to do to be in compliance. Something like "this text must be included" or "this copyright line must be included". So read each one and do what it says. If they don't say that a specific file must be included then, yes you can combine them. Some even say you have to add it to your documentation as an attribution.
The advice to talk to a lawyer is probably the best on here (and +1 for that, as well). Something to remember, though - if you are including multiple licenses within your source, you need to comply with all of them. So, if all the licenses are permissive except one, you may have to open source your software.
Just something to be aware of.
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I'm a software engineer, not a lawyer, and my university doesn't offer any courses geared toward licensing software. In fact, their law-related courses are lacking (but slowly growing in number). Where can I go to learn about open-source licenses and how to choose them?
There are lots described here:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#SoftwareLicenses
The decision of which one to use can be political, but should ultimately be determined by your plans/desires for the software. If you want to ensure it is always free then choose GPL or another "Copyleft" license. If you don't mind some commercial use, choose another one that's compatible with that.
I almost always end up usign MIT or BSD (they're equivalent), since it
Is the most liberal license out there. It just says you're not responsible for any kind of trouble, and optionally forces people to include a copyright notice of your original work in derivatives.
It allows closed source derivatives, which is something I see as a good thing: companies sometimes don't have the possibility to do their work under the GPL (they may themselves use products or components from a third party with restricted licenses).
That, and the GNU/GPL bunch are generally extremists when you encounter them in the wild.
This can create endless discussion, but there is one tenet I would hold to whenever deciding what license to use: DON'T CREATE A NEW ONE!!
No matter how persuasive your legal guy's arguments that, because no current license exactly meets your project's unique needs, you should write your own, or even just "slightly modify" an existing one, treat him like a programmer coming to you arguing that he just HAS to use a GOTO statement because nothing else in the language will work.
Other advice:
Choose one which has major usage (see http://freshmeat.net/stats/#license)
See David A. Wheeler's discussion of why to choose a license compatible with the GPL - http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/gpl-compatible.html.
If you are looking for information regarding free and open source licenses a useful comparison chart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_software_licences
You could always just use the best one of all, the WTFPL. I use this on most of my school projects since they aren't that great anyways.
Wikipedia, of course, has basically all the information you would ever need to know. But the hard part is to know where to start. I'd recommend starting off by reading about the Apache License and the GNU GPL, which are two popular sides to the same story, each offering different freedoms to the people associated with the code.
But here it is in a nutshell: Apache License lets anyone do anything with your code, including taking it and using it in a closed source product. It gives whoever is taking the code the freedom to do what they want with it.
The GNU GPL, on the other hand, allows your code only to be used in a project that is also distributed under the GPL. In this case you might write some code and prevent a proprietary company from using your work. Here, you're giving freedom to the code itself that it will always be used for "free" purposes.
I'm slightly surprised to see no mention of the Open Source Initiative as a source of information about which open source licences exist. It probably doesn't do the comparisons, so the other sites are also worth checking.
More pragmatic reasons can also influence your choice of license - if you want to use a GPL library, you must use GPL yourself, or if you intend your software to be part of a larger project then you need to look at their requirements.
I've recently begun investigating the type of licensing to apply to a rather substantial piece of work. The number of choices and the content, restrictions (or not) and limitations of all the open-source licenses is bewildering. I've found a couple good links in the answers posted, but I didn't see anything pointing to the Open Source Initiative's alphabetical list of licenses, so I've included it here.
We had a similar dilemma. At our company we decided invest lots of time on a framework, with the eventual hope of releasing it to the open source community. The business is built using open source tools (apache, php, etc.), it was time to give back. We decided on an LGPL/MPL dual license. That way, we could incorporate fixes/improvements from the community, while still protecting applications (particularly ours) running on top of it from being forced to go open source as well.