In fact, the two models for software licensing open source and. The document license was the public document license pdl. Forms contain a section on basic permissions that indicate wide latitude for users who access the software. Top 10 gnu gpl license questions answered whitesource. This page presents the opinion of some debianlegal contributors on how certain licenses follow the debian free software guidelines dfsg. Gimp is an acronym for gnu image manipulation program. The following licenses are in use for r or associated software such as packages. Jun 28, 2019 the only difference between these provisions is that the free software license offers broader language. The gnu affero general public license is based on the gnu gpl, but has an additional term to allow users who interact with the licensed software over a network to receive the source for that program. Introduction gimp is an acronym for gnu image manipulation program. We welcome enquiries from maintainers considering particular licenses, but we. An effort that started with the free software foundation fsf in 1991, its now a popular choice for open source projects.
If you have licensed software youve written under gpl version 2, and you are the original licensor of that software, you may wish to relicense your software under gpl version 3. The basics of software license agreements if you create software for customers, then you need to consider creating a software license agreement to help protect you and your business. License and copyright information for cisco nxos software. If you prefer to limit a users authority to merely using your product and want to maintain closedsource code, an enduser license agreement eula is your best option. Comparison of free and opensource software licenses.
And you must show them these terms so they know their rights. There are many reasons to have one in place, so if you do not yet have one, it is time to start understanding its ins and outs. If you create software for customers, then you need to consider creating a software license agreement to help protect you and your business. The gnu, or general public license, is a free software license that offers users freedom to operate, study, share, and modify the software. It offers a section that describes the rights of the user and how they retain them. Simply put, the gpl says that anyone who redistributes the software, with or without changes, must pass along the freedom to further copy and change it. Statement on canonicals updated licensing terms for. If you have used a gpl component in your software, then your entire software is considered a. The gnu gpl is the most widely used free software license and has a strong copyleft. Explaining and understanding the gnu general public license gpl. This source code will be provided to you subject to the. Open source licenses are licenses that comply with the open source definition in brief, they allow software to be freely used, modified, and shared. By contrast, the gnu general public license is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a. Software as a service and gnu gpl licensing is not complex, the motto of the license is for disallowing the softwares to control the users and modify, distribute, develop, use the softwares with full freedom along with the other points written in the license.
We, the free software foundation, use the gnu general public license for most of our software. Some pieces of code were developed by nokia and others originated from third parties. Both filezilla and filezilla server as downloadable from are free opensource software distributed under the terms and conditions of the gnu general public license gpl version 2 or at your option any later version. To protect yourself legally, all of your companys software should be covered by a license agreement. A software license agreement, also known as an enduser license agreement, is a legally binding contract between the owner of proprietary software in this case, your business and the end user your customer. This product contains elements of software the program subject to the gnu gplv2. The basics of software license agreements legalnature. Sample software license agreement provisions findlaw. The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. Free software license agreement free to print, save. By contrast, the gnu general public license is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a programto make sure it remains free software for all its users. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It does this by adding a trump clause that prevails in all situations possibly covered by the policy. The gpl was created by richard stallman in order to protect gnu software from being made proprietary.
The bsd 2clause license the bsd 3clause license the gnu general public license version 2. If your software is licensed under the terms of the gpl. This is a comparison of free and opensource software licenses. The gnu general public license is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of. The free software foundation may publish revised andor new versions. This enduser license agreement is a legal contract between super micro computer, inc. We use only licenses that are compatible with the gnu gpl for gnu software.
There is a nice frequently asked questions faq page. See the gnu general public license for more details. The gnu gpl license therefore requires that such scripts if published are being shared under a gpl compatible license. There are many reasons to have one in place, so if you do not yet have one. Software licensed with any gnu license can be used and even modified everywhere, including in a corporate environment, without any restrictions. Anything statically linked to the library can only be redistributed under lgpl, but applications that use the library. Oems original equipment manufacturers, isvs independent software vendors, vars value added resellers and other distributors that combine and distribute commercially licensed software with mysql software and do not wish to distribute the source code for the commercially licensed software under version 2 of the gnu general public license. Gplcompatible software is software whose conditions of propagation, modification and use would permit combination with gcc in accord with the license of gcc. This license agreement is between the python software foundation psf, and the individual or organization licensee accessing and otherwise using python 3.
This license is a set of additional permissions added to version 3 of the gnu general public license. The license was originally written by richard stallman, former head of the free software foundation fsf, for the gnu project, and grants the recipients of a computer. Works beside code donated to the project under cover of the oracle contributor agreement oca were held jointly by oracle for the project under the. Gnu general public license, version 3 spdx short identifier.
To make it free software, you need to release it under a free software license. The comparison only covers software licenses with a linked article for details, approved by at least one expert group at the fsf, the osi, the debian project or the fedora project. For those not familiar with the gnu gpl, the license basically allows you to. You may copy, distribute and modify the software provided that you state modifications and license them under lgpl2. The licenses were originally written by richard stallman, former head of the free software foundation fsf, for the gnu project, and grant the recipients of a computer program the rights of the free software definition. Wordpress uses the gnu public license, which provides a platform for technical expansion and encourages adaptation and innovation. Gpl, or the gnu general public license, is an open source license meant for software. We recommend that people consider using the gnu agpl for any software which will commonly be run over a network. For more information about how to release your own software under this license, please see our page of instructions. Most of these opinions were formed in discussions on the debianlegal mailing list in response to questions from potential package maintainers or licensors. This license, the gnu lesser general public license, applies to certain. Ubuntu is an aggregate work of many works, each covered by their own licenses. Save, sign, print, and download your document when you are done. This update now makes canonicals policy unequivocally comply with the terms of the gnu general public license gpl and other free software licenses.
Software license agreement gnu general public license preamble. The sourcecode license was the gnu lesser general public license. Mar 24, 2010 to use the gpl, you have to include certain information in the softwares code, along with a copy of the license. The gnu general public license is a common licensing form for distributors of open source software. All software produced by the apache software foundation or any of its projects or subjects is licensed according to the terms of the documents listed below. By contrast, the gnu general public license is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software to make sure the software is free for all its users. What is gnu general public license gnu gpl or simply gpl. There are multiple variants of the gnu gpl, each with different requirements. May 05, 2009 cisco is willing to license its software to you only upon the condition that you accept all of the terms contained in this end user license agreement plus any additional limitations on the license set forth in a supplemental license agreement accompanying the product collectively the agreement. License the source code for octave is freely redistributable under the terms of the gnu general public license gpl as published by the free software foundation. If you wish to obtain a copy of the source code of these elements source code you may request a copy from. More than just a template, our stepbystep interview process makes it easy to create a software license agreement.
Jun 29, 2007 the gnu general public license is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works. Track in fossa gnu lesser general public license v2. Open source software means software or similar subject matter that is distributed under an open source license such as by way of example only the gnu general public license, gnu lesser general public license, apache license, mozilla public license, bsd license, mit license, common public license, any derivative of any of the foregoing. This forbids activities such as distributing of the software under a nondisclosure agreement or contract. Comparison of free and opensource software licenses wikipedia.
To be approved by the open source initiative also known as the osi, a license must go through the open. However be aware that if you or the company ever make changes to the software and want to distribute it, it must be distributed with full source code, on the same license terms as the original software. All of the gnu development tools, such as gnu binutils, gcc, gdb and gnu make, are governed by the terms of the gnu general public license. The licenses were originally written by richard stallman, former head of the free software foundation fsf, for the gnu project, and grant the recipients of a computer program the rights of the free software. This will help support development of the rest of the gnu system, and other useful software beyond that. The gpl allows you to freely copy, modify and redistribute that software and no other statement or documentation, including any end user license agreement, places any additional restrictions on what you may do with that software. Tldrlegal software licenses explained in plain english. Any software originating from cisco and its suppliers is licensed under the cisco software license agreement contained in schedule 1 below. The creative commons attributionsharealike international license version 4.
To use the gpl, you have to include certain information in the softwares code, along with a copy of the license. Gnu lgpl information this library is free software. The gnu general public license, often shortened to gnu gpl or simply gpl, lists terms and conditions for copying, modifying and distributing free software. May 12, 2015 software as a service and gnu gpl licensing is not complex, the motto of the license is for disallowing the softwares to control the users and modify, distribute, develop, use the softwares with full freedom along with the other points written in the license. Web links to copies of other applicable open source software licenses are presented below for each product. Sharing or selling blender addons python scripts blenders python api is an integral part of the software, used to define the user interface or develop tools for example.
This general public license applies to most of the free software foundations software and to. Subject to the terms and conditions of this license agreement, psf hereby grants licensee a. Both filezilla and filezilla server as downloadable from are free opensource software distributed under the terms and conditions of the gnu general public license gpl version 2 or at your option any later version for using filezilla and filezilla. Most gpl version 2 software is actually licensed as gpl version 2 or any later version, or. Qt contains some code that is not provided under the gnu general public license gpl, gnu lesser general public license lgpl or the qt commercial license agreement, but rather under specific licenses from the original authors. When distributing derived works, the source code of the work must be made available under the same license. Can gpl licenced software be used in corporate environments. Learn more about this license, and discover what can and cannot be done under it. However, do not label your agreement as a gnu license agreement. Wordpress is an open source software project, and a fierce believer in the values of the open web. Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail. It grants fewer rights to a work than the standard gpl. This general public license applies to most of the free software foundations software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it.
We normally use the gnu general public license gnu gpl, specifying version 3 or any later version, but occasionally we use other free software licenses. The gnu general public license gnu gpl or gpl is a widelyused free software license that guarantees end users the freedom to run, study, share, and modify the software. Mingw profiling code is distributed under the terms of the gnu general public license, version 2. The gnu gpl is the most widely used free software license and has a strong copyleft requirement. Gnu general public license this license, commonly known as the gpl, has two versions that are actively and widely used in many open source communities. Powerful math software that is easy to use maple for academic maple for students maple for industry and government maple for individuals. By contrast, the gnu general public license is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free softwareto make sure the software is free for all its users. Revised versions of the gnu lesser general public license. Most gnu software, including some libraries, is covered by the ordinary gnu general public license. This license grants considerable protection for the author. While eulas are designed for a specific product or line of products, the free software license intends to include all software offered with open code.
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