License software free download license top 4 download offers free software downloads for windows, mac, ios and android computers and mobile devices. When a programmer or organization decides to release a piece of software under a free software license, he can either choose from the preexisting free software licenses or create an entirely new license. If recipient institutes patent litigation against a contributor with respect to a patent applicable to software including a crossclaim or counterclaim in a lawsuit, then any patent licenses granted by that contributor to such recipient under this agreement shall terminate as of the. Some licenses result in the software being freely redistributable, so packagers and resellers can automatically know that theyre free to redistribute the software. I hope that the debian www pages will be clearly free and compatible with the gnu gpl. How can i tell if a license is a free software license, by debians standards. Very rarely do the fsfs four fundamental freedoms mentioned above and the dfsg disagree on a license s freeness. Other unacknowledged or custom licenses unacknowledged by fsf, osi, dfsg, fedora, unclear if gplcompatible severe difficulties getting into linuxdistros, most probably stores either storeowner would have to revise every single license to see if provides enough usage rights. The debian free software guidelines dfsg showing 115 of 15 messages. In late january, sil internationals nonroman script initiative announced the sil open font license. License the following license terms apply to all ldp documents, unless otherwise stated in the document.
Debianlegal is a debian mailing list for the discussion of legal questions related to debian, including in particular whether some package or prospective. Debian free software guidelines wikimili, the free. This leads to the circumstance that inspired this essay in the first place. There are licenses accepted by the osi which are not free as per the free software definition. Most of these opinions were formed in discussions on the debianlegal mailing list in response to questions from potential package maintainers or licensors. Ive started sections about the bsd philosophy which has been expanded by some bsd users, and a section about the debian position. However, the original artistic license is still considered dfsgfree. Free software yes if the license meets the free software definition, no if not. The original license is now deprecated even by the bsd project. The following licenses are considered ok for software to be included into the archive. Cpl is a dfsg free license by ibm and has the following. The debian free software guidelines dfsg are a set of guidelines that the debian project uses to determine whether the license used by a piece of software. A new draft of the stix license is due in march, with fonts scheduled to be. We promise that the debian system and all its components will.
Software using such a license is free software as conferred by the holder. Other licenses will require a careful reading by a human to determine how the software can be repackaged and resold. The sil open font license ofl is a free, libre and open source license specifically designed for fonts and related software based on our experience in font design and linguistic software engineering. It is a lax, permissive noncopyleft free software license, compatible with the gnu gpl. The debian free software guidelines dfsg are a set of guidelines that the debian project uses to determine whether the license used by a piece of software qualifies as a free software license.
This is a comparison of free and opensource software licenses. The debian free software guidelines dfsg part of the contract, initially designed as a set of commitments that we agree to abide by, has been adopted by the free software community as the basis of the open source definition. I strongly believe that it conforms to the dfsg and is a free software license. It is possible to have a package containing software under a free license with some other aspect that makes it nonfree. The intention of having a default sitewide license is so that general text and graphics on the website should be free in the gnu sense so that they can be used and modified by others in the group and elsewhere, and so that noone has to worry about using or modifying previous contributors work even if they temporarily disappear or leave the project. For the first year or so, debian was sponsored by the fsf.
It is essentially identical to the x11 license, with an optional alternative way of providing license notices. The original bsd license is one of the first free software licenses in the mid80s, the gnu project produced individual free software licences for each of its software packages. Free and open source software licensing open source. I created the dfsg and the debian social contract, and submitted the first draft to the debian developers on their mailing list in june of 1997.
Gpl compatible yes if software licensed under the license can be combined with software licensed under the gnu general public license, no if not. Agpl is a fairly new license that was meant to go gplovernetworks. The debian free software guidelines dfsg is a set of guidelines that the debian project uses to determine whether a software license is a free software license, which in turn is used to determine whether a piece of software can be included in debian. A freesoftware license is a notice that grants the recipient of a piece of software extensive rights to modify and redistribute that software. Debian free software guidelines simple english wikipedia. These were all replaced in 1989 with version 1 of the gnu general public license gpl.
However, not being a lawyer, and actually not having read the whole license, i cant understand what. Note that various licenses may have problems if they are combined with other licenses, so a listing here is not an ultimative guarantee that software will be included in the archive. To any casual observer, it almost appears that inform 6 has been released under dfsgfree terms and that inform 7 is hot on its heels. Cementing confusion, the pieces that are truly free software include the inform 6n compiler and the inform 6 templates. This distinction is critical because it determines whether a piece of. The open source definition allows for further restrictions like price, type of contribution and origin of the contribution, e. We welcome enquiries from maintainers considering particular licenses, but we encourage most maintainers to use one of the common licenses. To answer common questions about the debian free software guidelines and how we judge whether some piece of software is free. This page presents the opinion of some debianlegal.
The text of the open source definition is taken directly from the debian free software guidelines dfsg. If that isnt possible, if you really need a new license, with our help you can ensure that the license really is a free software license and. The bsd3clause license this is distinct from the original, 4clause bsd license that included an advertising requirement. Various licenses and comments about them gnu project free. We provide the guidelines that we use to determine if a work is free in the document entitled the debian free software guidelines. The work must not place restrictions on other independent works distributed along with it. For a list of licenses not specifically intended for so. Open source licenses and the ethical use of software.
Previous versions of the sgi free software license b were not free software licenses, despite their name. Copyleft or noncopyleft is not a criteria suitable to distinguish between open source and free software, both terms describe. The proliferation of different free software licenses means increased work for users in understanding the licenses. This position is held by the free software foundation and by the free art license authors. Version 2 of the gpl, released in 1991, went on to become the most widely used free software licence.
A software license is a document that provides legally binding guidelines for the use and distribution of software. It started as a small, tightlyknit group of free software hackers, and gradually grew to become a large, wellorganized community of developers and users. It is a cautionary tale in the dangers of excess restraint in the name of freedom. Fsfs free software and osis opensource licenses together are called foss licenses. Various licenses and comments about them gnu project. In fact, sometimes you feel like you are being lead around and somewhat forced to upgrade when youd rather. The diversity of free software licenses means that debian needs to care not only. Bruce perens, debian free software guidelines an open. The debian free software guidelines dfsg is a set of guidelines rules that the debian project uses to decide whether a software license is a free software. The gnu free documentation license is a free content license for software documentation written by richard stallman and advocated by the free software foundation fsf it is unremittingly awful and grossly unsuitable for anything other than software manuals written on paper, and often not even those. Protective licenses and nonprotective licenses are subclasses of free software licenses recognized by the open source initiative and the fsf. The bitstream vera license, the starting point for most free font licenses, is several years old.
The open source definition annotated open source initiative. The debian projectdebian specifies a number of guidelines known as the debian free software guidelinesdfsg, which are used by the debian legal team to judge whether a license is free or not. How the first sale doctrine interacts with free software licenses and other public licenses has not, to my knowledge, been. 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.
Comparison of free and opensource software licenses. So, we should probably be fair and subject this license to a dfsg analysis just as we have the gnu fdl. Debian has a social contract, which includes the debian free software guidelines dfsg. The debian free software guidelines dfsg crankypuss. The wellknown and widely used copyleft licenses from the free software foundation fsf such as the gpl are in my opinion not very good. Although all free licenses give you the legal right to modify. List of software that does not respect the free system distribution. The debian free software guidelines dfsg is a set of guidelines rules that the debian project uses to decide whether a software license is a free software license, which is used to decide whether a piece of software can be included in debian. This page presents the opinion of some debianlegal contributors on how certain licenses follow the debian free software guidelines dfsg. Sometimes, debianlegal comments on a license in abstract, not applied to any particular software. The distribution terms of opensource software must comply with the following criteria. This means that if you think youve found a loophole in the dfsg then you dont quite understand how this works. Bruce byfield suddenly, its free font license time. I also dont like the fsf as an organisation for reasons i will explain in a future post, and would prefer to avoid them when possible.
The free software licenses article only discussed fsfs point of view until recently. This is a set of guidelines about the license of a software package, as outlined in the. This license is sometimes referred to as the 3clause bsd license. By constraining the license to require free redistribution, we. These actions are usually prohibited by law, but the rightsholder of a piece of software can remove these restrictions by accompanying the software with a software license which grants the recipient these rights.
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