Five Open Source Protocol (Gpl,lgpl,bsd,mit,apache) introduction

Source: Internet
Author: User

Commercially available software should be the main use of MIT or Apache license Open source System as a plug-in. What is a license agreement?

What is a license, when you issue a license for your product, you are selling your rights, but you still have the copyright and the patent (if you apply), the purpose of the license is to provide certain privileges to the person who uses your product.

Whether the product is free to distribute to the public, or sell, it is very useful to make a license agreement, otherwise, for the former, you are tantamount to giving up all your rights, no one is obligated to show your original authorship, for the latter, you will have to spend more than the development of energy to deal with the user's authorization problem.

and the open source license makes these things simple, and it's easy for developers to contribute their code to a project that protects the identity of your original author, giving you at least a recognition, and an open source license that prevents others from keeping a product for themselves. The following are the 5 major licensing agreements for the open source community.

GNU GPL

The GNU general public Licence (GPL) is probably the most common licensing model in the open source world. The GPL guarantees the rights of all developers and provides the user with sufficient rights to reproduce, distribute, and modify:

    • Free to copy
      You can copy the software to your computer, your client's computer, or anywhere. There are no restrictions on the number of copies.
    • Free to distribute
      Download it on your website, copy it to a USB flash drive, or print out the source code and throw it out of the window (for environmental reasons, please do not).
    • Can be used to profit
      You can charge for the distribution of the software, but you must provide your customer with the GNU GPL license Agreement for the software before the charge is made so they know that they can get the software free of charge from other channels and the reason for your charges.
    • Free to modify
      If you want to add or remove a feature, no problem, if you want to use part of the code in another project, there is no problem, the only requirement is that the project using this code must also use the GPL protocol.

It is important to note that the source code and binaries need to be explicitly provided when distributing, in addition, some of the protocols used for certain programs have some problems and limitations, so you can take a look at the article written by @PierreJoye Practical Guide to the GPL Compliance. With the GPL protocol, you must include the appropriate information in the source code and the protocol itself.

GNU LGPL

GNU also has another protocol, called LGPL (Lesser general public Licence), which retains less rights to the product than the GPL, and generally LGPL for open source libraries or frameworks for non-GPL or non-open source products. Because the GPL requires that products that use the GPL code must also use the GPL, developers are not allowed to use GPL code for commercial products. LGPL bypasses this limitation.

Bsd

BSD has fewer restrictions on software distribution than other open source agreements, such as the GNU GPL. There are several versions of the protocol, the most significant of which are two, the new BSD protocol and the simple BSD protocol, both of which are modified to be compatible with the GPL and are recognized by the open source organization.

The new BSD Protocol (3 terms Agreement) has no limitations in terms of software distribution except for the inclusion of a copyright notice and disclaimer. In addition, the Agreement prohibits the endorsement of derivative products in the name of the developer, but the simple BSD agreement removes the clause.

MIT

The MIT agreement may be the most lenient of several open source agreements, with the core clauses:

The software and its related documentation are free for all and can be disposed of, including use, reproduction, modification, merger, publication, distribution, re-authorization, or sale. The only limitation is that the above copyright and licensing prompts must be included in the software.

This means that:

    • You are free to use, copy, modify, and can be used for your own projects.
    • can be distributed free of charge or used for profit.
    • The only limitation is that the license statement must be included.

The MIT agreement is the most lenient of all open source licenses, with no restrictions other than the license statement.

Apache

Apache Protocol 2.0 and other open source agreements, in addition to providing users with copyright licenses, there is a patent license, for those involved in the patent content of the developer, the agreement is the most suitable (here is an article to explain this problem).

The Apache protocol also has the following areas to explain:

    • Perpetual rights
      Once authorized, it is permanently owned.
    • The rights on a global scale
      Be authorized in one country and apply to all countries. If you are in the United States, the license is licensed from India, and there is no problem.
    • Free of charge and no royalties
      At the beginning, there is no cost at any later stage.
    • No exclusivity of authorization
      Anyone can get an authorization
    • Authorization cannot be undone
      Once authorized, no one can cancel. For example, if you develop derivative products based on the product code, you don't have to worry about being banned from using the code on a certain day.

The distribution code includes a number of requirements, primarily to endorse the person participating in the development in the statement and to include a copy of the original license agreement.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons (CC) is not a strictly open source license, it is used primarily for design. Creative Commons has a variety of protocols, each of which provides the appropriate licensing model, and the CC protocol consists of 4 basic forms:

    • Attribution rights
      The original author must be signed before it can be modified, distributed, copied.
    • Stay consistent
      Works can also be modified, distributed and reproduced on the basis of the CC agreement.
    • Non-commercial
      Works may be modified, distributed, reproduced, but not used for commercial purposes. But the definition of business is vague, for example, some people think that non-commercial use refers to the inability to sell, some think it is not even on the advertising site, some people think that non-commercial means non-profit.
    • Cannot derive new works
      You can copy, distribute, but not modify, or create your own work on the basis of this.

These licensing forms can be combined with the most severe combination of "attribution, non-commercial, not derivative works", which means that you can share the work but cannot change or profit from it, and must be signed by the original author. In this licensing model, the original author also has complete control over the work, and the most relaxed combination is "signature", meaning that, as long as the original author is signed, it can be disposed of freely.

Five Open Source Protocol (Gpl,lgpl,bsd,mit,apache) introduction

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