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Licenses of Softwares

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Licenses prevent the user/companies to use the code in the way we want them to be used. It prevents the exploitation of the code. If no license is provided then the restrictions come from copyright law which varies from country to country. 

The open-source code has various licenses attached to it. In this article, we are going to discuss the most common licenses which are used in Open Source World. 

  1. Apache 2.0 License: 
    This license is given by the Apache Software Foundation and it required the preservation of the copyright notice and disclaimer. This license allows the user/s of the software to use and modify the original source code. The user can also distribute the modified version of the software without royalties. The software should contain a copy of the Apache 2.0 license. The modifications should be mentioned. 
  2. BSD: 
    BSD stands for Berkeley Software Distribution. This type of licensing has very few restrictions on the use and distribution of the covered software. In this type of licensing we are free to use, redistribute and license the code under another license. 
  3. GPL: 
    GPL stands for General Public License. It is the first copyleft license which means that the modified source code should have the same license as the original. The licensing header should be present on the source code. It was made for general public usage hence the name General Public License. 
  4. MIT: 
    MIT license was created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It puts very few restrictions on the reuse, hence has great License compatibility. It safeguards the original author against any damage resulting from their code. We can modify and redistribute the code and put them in the different licenses. 
     

 


Last Updated : 24 Sep, 2021
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