Licensing Software

ITEC 3870 Software Development II,

(License: CC BY-SA 4.0)

  • Software can be license by owners to:
    • Other programmers (licenses that allow modification and distribution)
    • End-users (limited rights, aka EULA)

Contents of Licenses

  • Based on the copyright or copy-left protection option selected for your project
  • Need to come up with a license document that specifies how others can use your product
  • License may need to specify:
    • Type of user (e.g., end user versus developer who wants to adopt and distribute)
    • Any conditions (e.g., put credits before distribution)
    • Commercial use (allowed vs forbidden)

How to Select a License for Your Project

  1. For open source licenses, see list on Wikipedia. A common and easy method is to use the Creative Commons licenses.
  2. For proprietary licenses, there are many types. There are also license generators such as BinPress.

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