Why You Need To Check Software Licenses

You probably know that software licenses exist, but do you know what implications they can have on your business or project? Did you know not paying attention to them can be extremely costly? In this episode we’ll talk about software licensing, how it can affect your business or project, how you can navigate it, and which license to choose for your project.

Links

• Companion YouTube Video
• Podcast Page

Show Notes

• Intro
• Overview
• Consequences of using the wrong license
• What is software licensing?
  • A legal contract between the party providing the software or source code and the end user
• Common types
  • Free Software (gives the recipient extensive rights to modify and redistribute)
    • Copyleft / Free-Libre / FOSS (protective)
      • GPL, AGPL
      • Right to freely distribute and modify but derivative works must carry the same rights
      • Opinion: Software end-user focused, attempts to protect end-user rights
    • Permissive (can relicense, allows proprietization)
      • Some BSDs, MIT, Apache, MPL
      • Minimal restrictions, can be used, modified, redistributed
      • Opinion: Software creator focused, attempts to make life easier on creator
    • Public Domain & Equivalent (grants all rights)
      • Very complicated, often depends on country of origin and use
  • Proprietary (traditional copyright, no rights necessarily granted)
• License Compatibility
• React projects: make sure to include OSS licenses in builds/distributions
• Can you copy/paste code you find on stackoverflow, documentation, the internet?
• Trademarks
• Don’t add or modify licenses
• Distribution
• Analyzing Licenses for Inclusion in a Project
• Picking a Software License for a Project
• Attribution
• Summary

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