Nov 4, 2009
What Terms Apply Under an Open Source License?
The terms under open source licenses vary widely from form to form - and there are at least 50 different forms in use. Generally speaking, they can be grouped into two groups: so-called "academic" licenses and "copyleft" open source licenses. "Academic" licenses, such as the BSD License and the MIT License, are seen as the least restrictive on users, in the sense that they do not prevent licensees of open source software licensed under such licenses from developing proprietary software products based on improvements and derivative works of the original open source software. However, academic licenses generally still impose some conditions on licensees, such as requirements that users of the open source code include a copyright notice and liability disclaimer in any distributions of the code that are made. "Copyleft" license are seen as more restrictive on users of the open source code because of the additional condition imposed by the license.
