Licensing

Notes

This is based on the notice in one license and can also be included in README under LICENSE. The license doesn’t need to be used unless for substantial portions.

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

Some projects have LICENSE-source next to LICENSE - add that to doc instructions.

Resources

By GitHub

License a repository from GitHub docs.
Choose a License
- choosealicense.com homepage.
- Licenses page - listed with short description on Choose a License. However over a colored dot for more info.
- Appendix page - table of all licenses, plus legend/definitions below.

Tutorials

License choices

choosealicense.com/licenses/

That page lists GNU GPLv3 and MIT as the most popular. The former is more restrictive These are covered below.

MIT

Description:

A short and simple permissive license with conditions only requiring preservation of copyright and license notices. Licensed works, modifications, and larger works may be distributed under different terms and without source code.

Permissions:

Commercial use
Distribution
Modification
Private use

Conditions:

License and copyright notice
- A copy of the license and copyright notice must be included with the software.

Full license text:

MIT - this is short and fits on the page.

GNU General Public License v3.0

Also known as GPLv3.

Description:

Permissions of this strong copyleft license are conditioned on making available complete source code of licensed works and modifications, which include larger works using a licensed work, under the same license. Copyright and license notices must be preserved. Contributors provide an express grant of patent rights.

Similar to MIT but adds conditions:

Disclose source
Same license
State changes

And adds a permission:

patent use

Full license text:

GPL-3.0 - note this is very long and takes several pages.