Software License
Software licensing describes the legal rights pertaining to the authorized use of digital material. Failure to adhere to software license agreement terms often incurs criminal charges related to licensed intellectual property (IP) and copyrighted material.
Simply that is an agreement between you and the owner of a software program that allows you to do certain things that would otherwise be an infringement of copyright law.
The software license usually answers questions such as,
Where and how and how often can you install the program?
Can you copy, modify, or redistribute it?
Can you look at the underlying source code?
Duration?
Types of Licenses
Public domain
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This is the most permissive type of software license. When software is in the public domain, anyone can modify and use the software without any restrictions. But you should always make sure it’s secure before adding it to your own codebase. This includes code snippets you find on the internet.
Ex: BLAST, CERN’’s httpd, image J, Serpent, SQLite
Permissive
Permissive licenses are also known as “Apache-style” or “BSD style.” They contain minimal requirements about how the software can be modified or redistributed. This type of software license is perhaps the most popular license used with free and open-source software. Aside from the Apache License and the BSD Licence, another common variant is the MIT License.
LGPL
The GNU Lesser General Public Licence allows you to link to open source libraries in your software. If you simply compile or link an LGPL-licensed library with your own code, you can release your application under any license you want, even a proprietary license. But if you modify the library or copy parts of it into your code, you’ll have to release your application under similar terms as the LGPL.
Copyleft
Copyleft licenses are also known as reciprocal licenses or restrictive licenses. The most well-known example of copyleft or reciprocal license is the GPL. These licenses allow you to modify the licensed code and distribute new works based on it, as long as you distribute any new works or adaptations under the same software license. For example, a component’s license might say the work is free to use and distribute for personal use only. So any derivative you create would also be limited to personal use only.
Proprietary
Of all types of software licenses, this is the most restrictive. The idea behind it is that all rights are reserved. It’s generally used for proprietary software where the work may not be modified or redistributed.
