How to choose an Open Source license for a RAD framework on GitHub
In this article we will talk a little about copyright, but mainly about choosing a free license for the IADV RAD framework . Framework and for open source products based on it. We’ll talk about the Apache 2.0 licensing license , what led us to it, and what solutions we encountered in the process.
The process of choosing a license is quite time-consuming and should be approached by a fairly well-read one, and if you are not a happy owner of a law degree, then you will see an untouched field of information about various free licenses. The main thing to do is to draw up a number of limiting criteria. In the process of discussion and reflection, you and the team will be able to understand what you want to allow users of your product, and what to prohibit. When you already have a certain description in your hands, you need to impose it on existing licenses and select the one where the most points coincided. It sounds, of course, simple, but in reality, usually even after discussion, questions remain.
First, a link to choosealicense.com , a useful site that we actively used. Especially pay attention to the license comparison table by 13 main criteria. May English and patience be with you.
Flour of choice
Let's start with the common features of licenses for free software . Open source software implies an exclusively free license, which does not limit commercial and non-commercial distribution under the Open Core model . Accordingly, putting software under a free license on the network cannot completely limit its transfer, distribution and sale by third parties, and you only need to be mentally prepared for this.
A free license gives the user the right to participate in reverse development of the software or change it in other available ways. Most licenses do not allow you to rename a product or perform any manipulations with it, changing the rights of the author and / or owner of the system.
The main questions we were interested in about free licenses were:
- The changes made to the software should be fixed and have nothing to do with the copyright holder of the system?
- Should the name of the derivative software match the name of the software of the copyright holder?
- Is it possible to change the license for any new versions to another, including the proprietary?
After carefully looking at the list of the most common licenses, we selected a few that were considered in more detail. Potential licenses for IONDV. Framwork were: GNU GPLv3, Apache 2.0, MIT, and MPL. MIT was almost immediately ruled out, it is a permissive non-copyleft license that allows the use, modification and distribution of the code almost any way, but we did not like this option, we still wanted the license to regulate the relationship between the copyright holder and the user. Most of the not the largest projects on GitHub are laid out under the MIT license or its various variations. The license itself is very short, and of the prohibitions only an indication of the authorship of the software creator.
The next one was MPL 2.0 . We did not immediately confess to it, but having studied it in more detail, we quickly eliminated it, since the main drawback is that the license is applied not to the entire project, but to individual files. In addition, if the user modifies the file, then he cannot change the license. In fact, no matter how diligently you change the Open source project, you won’t be able to monetize it because of such a license. This incidentally does not apply to the copyright holder.
A similar problem persists with the GNU GPLv3 license . It requires that any file remain under it. The GNU GPL is a copyleft license, which requires that the source codes of derivative works are open and remain under the same license. That is: after rewriting two lines of code, you will be forced to commit your changes and save the code under the GNU GPL with future use or distribution. In this case, this is the limiting factor for the user of our project, and not for us. But changing the GPL to any other license is prohibited, even within versions of the GPL. For example, if you change the LGPL (add-on over the GPL) to the GPL, then there will be no way back to the LGPL. And this item was decisive in the vote against.
In general, our choice was initially inclined to GPL3 precisely because of the distribution of modified code under the same license. We thought that in this way we could secure our product, but we saw fewer risks in Apache 2.0. According to the Free Software Foundation, GPLv3 is compatible with Apache License v2.0., That is, it is always possible to change the license from Apache License v2.0 to GPL v3.0.
Apache 2.0
Apache 2.0- A balanced licensing license with a focus on copyrights. Here are the answers she gave to our questions. The changes made to the software should be fixed and have nothing to do with the copyright holder of the system? Yes, all changes must be documented and we are not responsible for the source code or for the changed. The file with the changes should be applied to the code in which you made these changes. Should the name of the derivative software match the name of the software of the copyright holder? Yes, derivative software must appear under a different name and under a different trademark, but with the copyright holder. Is it possible to change the license for any new versions to another, including the proprietary? Yes, it can be released under different licenses, Apache 2.0 does not limit the use of any non-commercial and commercial licenses.
Also, when releasing new products based on open source code for Apache 2.0 or products with additional functionality, it is not necessary to use the same license. Below you can see the image with the terms and conditions of the Apache 2.0 license.
The license requires the preservation and mention of copyright and the license under which the software is issued. Mandatory presence of a copyright notice with the name of the copyright holder and the license protects the rights of the original author of the software, since even if it is renamed, given away or sold under a different license, the author’s mark will still remain. For this, you can also use the NOTICE file and attach it either to the source code or to the project documentation.
We release all our products under the Apache 2.0 license, except IONDV , on GitHub . War archive , the source code of which was published in April this year under the GPLv3 license on GitHub by the Far Eastern Center for Social Technologies. At the moment, in addition to the framework itself and its modules , applications published on the framework are published. On a habr we already spoke about the Project Management System and about the Communication Register .
IONDV. Framework - open source framework on node.js for creating high-level metadata-based web applications, which does not require serious programming skills.
The basis of the application functionality is the data registry - the Register module. This is a key module designed specifically for working with data based on metadata structures - including those for managing projects, programs, events, etc. The project also uses a portal module to display arbitrary data templates - it implements the front of the registry of archive files.
MongoDb is used for the DBMS - it also stores application settings, metadata, and the data itself.
How to apply a license to your project?
Add the LICENSE file with the license text to the repository of your project and voilà, a project protected by Apache 2.0. You must specify the copyright holder, this is copiright notice . You can do this in the source code or in the NOTICE file (a text file listing all the libraries licensed under the Apache license along with the names of their creators). The file should be put either in the source code or in the documentation distributed with the work. It looks like this for us:
Copyright © 2018 LLC "ION DV".
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0
Apache License
Version 2.0, January 2004
http://www.apache.org/licenses/
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Лицензия = договор
Свободная лицензия, она хоть и свободная, но не допускает вседозволенности и мы уже привели примеры ограничений. Выбирайте лицензию учитывая как свои интересы, так и пользователя, потому что открытое ПО рассчитано именно на него. Пользователю проекта следует воспринимать лицензию как своеобразный договор между ним и правообладателем, поэтому прежде чем проводить какие-либо действие над исходным кодом, внимательно изучите ограничения, накладываемые на вас лицензией проекта.
Надеемся, что мы пролили немного света на тему лицензий и, несмотря на сложность вопроса, он не должен стать препятствием на вашем пути в Open Source. Развивайте свой проект и не забывайте о правах, своих и чужих.
Полезные ссылки
Напоследок немного полезных ресурсов, которые нам помогли при поиске информации о существующих лицензиях и подборе наиболее подходящей под наши цели: