I've got a working grasp of open-source code licences, but I'm determined to get my head more fully around them, so that I can be 100% confident about the side-effects of using open-source projects with a given licence.<p>I want to end up with a good, working grasp of GPL (incl versions), AGPL, BSD, MIT and as many other [relatively] common setups as I can, and be able to explain them quickly and correctly to others. To get me on the road to that, it'd be great to get a few pointers to good/trusted sources of knowledge that are relatively easily graspable.<p>I am not a lawyer, and I am busy making things, so summaries/grids/lookup tables are particularly welcome. :o)
I've found Jeff Atwood's article on the topic to be the most useful selector of when what license is appropriate: <a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/04/pick-a-license-any-license.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/04/pick-a-license-any-...</a>
By far the best work on this subject has been written by Lawrence Rosen in his book "Open Source Licensing":<p><a href="http://www.rosenlaw.com/oslbook.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.rosenlaw.com/oslbook.htm</a><p>Free to read online - or buy a hardcopy.<p>Unlike less useful works, Rosen actually provides a model for thinking about open source models. Even if you only care about commercial software licensing, this this information in this book will be valuable.
it's very easy:<p>GPL: nobody can distribute your software as a closed-source system. Nobody can also link your software with non-opensource ones.<p>BSD, MIT, Apache: anyone is allowed to do anything with your code, provided that reference to your name is preserved.<p>If you code an open-source product, but it's intended for enterprise integration with lots of non-opensource components, go for a non-GPL licence, like MIT.<p>In most other cases, GPL is everything you need.<p>For non-software products that you want to share, use Creative Commons licenses.