The slides from my Presentation at the Open Source 101 Conference at the McKimmon Center at NC State U: Open Source Licensing 101

1. OPEN SOURCE
LICENSES 101
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
AKA: How I learned to stop worrying and love Licenses

2. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
ABOUT ME
• Apache Software Foundation
• Co-founder, Director, Member and Developer
• Director
• Outercurve, MARSEC-XL, OSSI, OSI (ex)…
• Developer
• Mega FOSS projects
• IANAL
• Sr. Director: Tech Fellows: Capital One

3. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
WHAT’S IN YOUR PROJECT?

4. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
LICENSES

5. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
WHY?
• Copyright is the default
• Open Source is everywhere
• The license determines use, re-use and distribution
• Not understanding means risk

6. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
LICENSE GOALS
• Ensure what parts remain open source
• Maintain control over code and direction
• Provide common implementation for standards
• Build community or commercial marketplace
• For most end-users, this is the sole touch-point

7. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
FREE SOFTWARE
• “Free” as in “free speech” (not as in “free beer”, although free beer is
good!)
• Software freedom is a moral imperative.
• Free Software Definition:
• 4 basic freedoms must be maintained
• Free Software ~== Open Source
• F(L)OSS

8. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
OPEN SOURCE
• For software to be Open Source, it must be under an OSI approved
Open Source License
• Open Source Definition: http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd
• 10 criteria
• At last count, over 60 exist
• New Open Source licenses are very hard to get approved
• There are really 3 main types

9. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
PROMISES

10. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
LET’S PRETEND
==

11. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
USE

12. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
MODIFY

13. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
SHARE

14. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
GIVE ME CREDIT
Permissive:
ALv2
MIT
BSD

15. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
GIVE ME FIXES
Weak Copyleft:
EPL
LGPL

16. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
GIVE ME EVERYTHING
Strong Copyleft
GPLv2
GPLv3
AGPL GPL
GPL
GPL
GPL
GPL GPL
GPL GPL
GPL
GPL
GPLGPL
GPL
GPL
GPL

17. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
TAKE AWAYS
• A license is a tool. There is no “always right” license
• Take time to decide on the right license type
• Changing licenses can be very difficult
• Avoid “vanity” licenses
• ALWAYS specify a license!

18. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. All images property of their respective copyright holders
Jim Jagielski
@jimjag
THANKS!
• Jim Jagielski
• @jimjag (follow me!)
• http://www.jimjag.com/
• http://slideshare.net/jimjag/
• jimjag@gmail.com