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href="#Comparison_to_public_domain"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5</span> <span>Comparison to public domain</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Comparison_to_public_domain-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-License_compatibility" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#License_compatibility"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">6</span> <span>License compatibility</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-License_compatibility-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Reception_and_adoption" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Reception_and_adoption"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">7</span> <span>Reception and adoption</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Reception_and_adoption-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li 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class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">8.2</span> <span>Copycenter</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Copycenter-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Pushover_license" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Pushover_license"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">8.3</span> <span>Pushover license</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Pushover_license-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-See_also" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#See_also"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">9</span> <span>See also</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-See_also-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-References" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#References"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> 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Available in 13 languages" > <label id="p-lang-btn-label" for="p-lang-btn-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--action-progressive mw-portlet-lang-heading-13" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-language-progressive mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-language-progressive"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">13 languages</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ar mw-list-item"><a href="https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B1%D8%AE%D8%B5_%D8%A8%D8%B1%D9%85%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA_%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A9_%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%84%D8%A9" title="رخص برمجيات حرة متساهلة – Arabic" lang="ar" hreflang="ar" data-title="رخص برمجيات حرة متساهلة" data-language-autonym="العربية" data-language-local-name="Arabic" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>العربية</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ca mw-list-item"><a href="https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llic%C3%A8ncies_de_programari_permissives" title="Llicències de programari permissives – Catalan" lang="ca" hreflang="ca" data-title="Llicències de programari permissives" data-language-autonym="Català" data-language-local-name="Catalan" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Català</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-de mw-list-item"><a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiz%C3%BCgige_Open-Source-Lizenz" title="Freizügige Open-Source-Lizenz – German" lang="de" hreflang="de" data-title="Freizügige Open-Source-Lizenz" data-language-autonym="Deutsch" data-language-local-name="German" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Deutsch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-es mw-list-item"><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licencia_permisiva" title="Licencia permisiva – Spanish" lang="es" hreflang="es" data-title="Licencia permisiva" data-language-autonym="Español" data-language-local-name="Spanish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Español</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fr mw-list-item"><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licence_de_logiciel_permissive" title="Licence de logiciel permissive – French" lang="fr" hreflang="fr" data-title="Licence de logiciel permissive" data-language-autonym="Français" data-language-local-name="French" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Français</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ko mw-list-item"><a href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%ED%8D%BC%EB%AF%B8%EC%8B%9C%EB%B8%8C_%EB%9D%BC%EC%9D%B4%EC%84%A0%EC%8A%A4" title="퍼미시브 라이선스 – Korean" lang="ko" hreflang="ko" data-title="퍼미시브 라이선스" data-language-autonym="한국어" data-language-local-name="Korean" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>한국어</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ja mw-list-item"><a href="https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%91%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9F%E3%83%83%E3%82%B7%E3%83%96%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%82%BB%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B9" title="パーミッシブ・ライセンス – Japanese" lang="ja" hreflang="ja" data-title="パーミッシブ・ライセンス" data-language-autonym="日本語" data-language-local-name="Japanese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>日本語</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pt mw-list-item"><a href="https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licen%C3%A7as_BSD_e_GPL" title="Licenças BSD e GPL – Portuguese" lang="pt" hreflang="pt" data-title="Licenças BSD e GPL" data-language-autonym="Português" data-language-local-name="Portuguese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Português</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ru mw-list-item"><a href="https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0%B0%D0%B7%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%88%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B7%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D1%81%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE_%D0%9F%D0%9E" title="Разрешительная лицензия свободного ПО – Russian" lang="ru" hreflang="ru" data-title="Разрешительная лицензия свободного ПО" data-language-autonym="Русский" data-language-local-name="Russian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Русский</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-simple mw-list-item"><a href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permissive_software_license" title="Permissive software license – Simple English" lang="en-simple" hreflang="en-simple" data-title="Permissive software license" data-language-autonym="Simple English" data-language-local-name="Simple English" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Simple English</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-tr mw-list-item"><a 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class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> is a <a href="/wiki/Free_software" title="Free software">free-software</a> <a href="/wiki/Software_license" title="Software license">license</a> which instead of <a href="/wiki/Copyleft" title="Copyleft">copyleft</a> protections, carries only minimal restrictions on how the software can be used, modified, and redistributed, usually including a <a href="/wiki/Implied_warranty#Disclaimer_of_an_implied_warranty" title="Implied warranty">warranty disclaimer</a>. Examples include the <a href="/wiki/GNU_All-permissive_License" title="GNU All-permissive License">GNU All-permissive License</a>, <a href="/wiki/MIT_License" title="MIT License">MIT License</a>, <a href="/wiki/BSD_licenses" title="BSD licenses">BSD licenses</a>, <a href="/wiki/Apple_Public_Source_License" title="Apple Public Source License">Apple Public Source License</a> and <a href="/wiki/Apache_license" class="mw-redirect" title="Apache license">Apache license</a>. As of 2016,<sup class="plainlinks noexcerpt noprint asof-tag update" style="display:none;"><a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Permissive_software_license&action=edit">[update]</a></sup> the most popular free-software license is the permissive <a href="/wiki/MIT_License" title="MIT License">MIT license</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-blackduck2015_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-blackduck2015-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-github_3-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-github-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Comparison_table">Comparison table</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Permissive_software_license&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Comparison table"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <table class="wikitable"> <tbody><tr> <th></th> <th><a href="/wiki/Public_domain" title="Public domain">Public domain</a> & <a href="/wiki/Public-domain-equivalent_license" title="Public-domain-equivalent license">equivalents</a></th> <th style="background:#9EFF9E;color:black;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center;" class="table-yes"><a href="/wiki/Permissive_license" class="mw-redirect" title="Permissive license">Permissive license</a></th> <th><a href="/wiki/Copyleft" title="Copyleft">Copyleft</a> (protective license)</th> <th><a href="/wiki/Non-commercial_activity" title="Non-commercial activity">Noncommercial</a> license</th> <th><a href="/wiki/Proprietary_license" class="mw-redirect" title="Proprietary license">Proprietary license</a></th> <th><a href="/wiki/Trade_secret" title="Trade secret">Trade secret</a> </th></tr> <tr> <th scope="row">Description </th> <td>Grants all rights</td> <td>Grants use rights, forbids almost nothing (allows proprietization, <a href="/wiki/License_compatibility" title="License compatibility">license compatibility</a>)</td> <td>Grants use rights, forbids <a href="/wiki/Proprietization" class="mw-redirect" title="Proprietization">proprietization</a></td> <td>Grants rights for noncommercial use only. May not be combined with copyleft.</td> <td>Traditional use of <a href="/wiki/Copyright" title="Copyright">copyright</a>; no rights need be granted</td> <td>No information made public </td></tr> <tr> <th scope="row">Software </th> <td>PD, <a href="/wiki/CC0" class="mw-redirect" title="CC0">CC0</a></td> <td><a href="/wiki/BSD_licenses" title="BSD licenses">BSD</a>, <a href="/wiki/MIT_License" title="MIT License">MIT</a>, <a href="/wiki/Apache_License" title="Apache License">Apache</a></td> <td><a href="/wiki/GPL" class="mw-redirect" title="GPL">GPL</a>, <a href="/wiki/GNU_Affero_General_Public_License" title="GNU Affero General Public License">AGPL</a></td> <td><a href="/wiki/Java_Research_License" title="Java Research License">JRL</a>, <a href="/wiki/Aladdin_Free_Public_License" title="Aladdin Free Public License">AFPL</a></td> <td><a href="/wiki/Proprietary_software" title="Proprietary software">proprietary software</a>, no public license</td> <td>private, internal software </td></tr> <tr> <th scope="row">Other creative works </th> <td>PD, <a href="/wiki/CC0" class="mw-redirect" title="CC0">CC0</a></td> <td><a href="/wiki/CC_BY" class="mw-redirect" title="CC BY">CC BY</a></td> <td><a href="/wiki/CC_BY-SA" class="mw-redirect" title="CC BY-SA">CC BY-SA</a>, <a href="/wiki/Free_Art_License" title="Free Art License">Free Art License</a></td> <td><a href="/wiki/CC_BY-NC" class="mw-redirect" title="CC BY-NC">CC BY-NC</a>, CC BY-NC-SA</td> <td><a href="/wiki/Copyright" title="Copyright">Copyright</a>, no public license</td> <td>unpublished </td></tr></tbody></table> <div style="clear:both;" class=""></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Example">Example</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Permissive_software_license&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Example"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>The following is the full text of the simple <a href="/wiki/GNU_All-permissive_License" title="GNU All-permissive License">GNU All-permissive License</a>: </p> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1244412712">.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 32px}.mw-parser-output .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;margin-top:0}@media(min-width:500px){.mw-parser-output .templatequotecite{padding-left:1.6em}}</style><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>Copyright <YEAR>, <AUTHORS><br /><br />Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty, provided the copyright notice and this notice are preserved. This file is offered as-is, without any warranty.</p><div class="templatequotecite">— <cite><a href="/wiki/GNU_All-permissive_License" title="GNU All-permissive License">GNU All-permissive License</a><sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></cite></div></blockquote> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Definitions">Definitions</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Permissive_software_license&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Definitions"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>The <a href="/wiki/Open_Source_Initiative" title="Open Source Initiative">Open Source Initiative</a> defines a permissive software license as a "non-<a href="/wiki/Copyleft" title="Copyleft">copyleft</a> license that guarantees the freedoms to use, modify and redistribute".<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/GitHub" title="GitHub">GitHub</a>'s <i>choosealicense</i> website describes the permissive <a href="/wiki/MIT_license" class="mw-redirect" title="MIT license">MIT license</a> as "[letting] people do anything they want with your code as long as they provide <a href="/wiki/Attribution_(copyright)" title="Attribution (copyright)">attribution</a> back to you and don't hold you <a href="/wiki/Product_liability" title="Product liability">liable</a>."<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/California_Western_School_of_Law" title="California Western School of Law">California Western School of Law</a>'s newmediarights.com defined them as follows: "The 'BSD-like' licenses such as the BSD, MIT and Apache licenses are extremely permissive, requiring little more than attributing the original portions of the licensed code to the original developers in your own code and/or documentation."<sup id="cite_ref-nmr-bsdlike_1-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-nmr-bsdlike-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Comparison_to_copyleft">Comparison to copyleft</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Permissive_software_license&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Comparison to copyleft"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Further information: <a href="/wiki/Copyleft" title="Copyleft">Copyleft</a></div> <p><a href="/wiki/Copyleft" title="Copyleft">Copyleft</a> licenses generally require the reciprocal publication of the source code of any modified versions under the original work's copyleft license.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Categories_of_free_and_nonfree_software_9-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Categories_of_free_and_nonfree_software-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Permissive licenses, in contrast, do not try to guarantee that modified versions of the software will remain free and publicly available, generally requiring only that the original copyright notice be retained.<sup id="cite_ref-nmr-bsdlike_1-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-nmr-bsdlike-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> As a result, derivative works, or future versions, of permissively-licensed software can be released as proprietary software.<sup id="cite_ref-android_10-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-android-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Defining how liberal a license is, however, is not something easily quantifiable, and often depends on the goals of the final users. If the latter are developers, for some it might be valuable to have the right to modify and exploit source code written by others and possibly incorporate it into proprietary code and make money with it (and therefore these see permissive licenses as offering them a "right"),<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> while for other developers it might be more valuable to know that nobody will ever capitalize what has mostly been their work (and therefore these see copyleft licenses as offering them a "right"). Furthermore, the final users might not be developers at all, and in this case copyleft licenses offer them the everlasting right to access a software as free software, ensuring that it will never become closed source – while permissive licenses offer no rights at all to non-developer final users, and software released with a permissive license could theoretically become from one day to another a closed source malware without the user even knowing it. </p><p>Permissive licenses offer more extensive <a href="/wiki/License_compatibility" title="License compatibility">license compatibility</a> than copyleft licenses, which cannot generally be freely combined and mixed, because their reciprocity requirements conflict with each other.<sup id="cite_ref-compatible_12-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-compatible-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-opensoucecomp_13-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-opensoucecomp-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-gpl2gpl3comp_14-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-gpl2gpl3comp-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-landley2013_15-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-landley2013-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-fsf-cddl_16-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-fsf-cddl-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Comparison_to_public_domain">Comparison to public domain</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Permissive_software_license&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Comparison to public domain"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951"><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Further information: <a href="/wiki/Public_domain_software" class="mw-redirect" title="Public domain software">Public domain software</a> and <a href="/wiki/Public-domain-equivalent_license" title="Public-domain-equivalent license">Public-domain-equivalent license</a></div> <p><a href="/wiki/Computer_Associates_Int%27l_v._Altai" class="mw-redirect" title="Computer Associates Int'l v. Altai">Computer Associates Int'l v. Altai</a> used the term "public domain" to refer to works that have become widely shared and distributed under permission, rather than work that was deliberately put into the public domain. However, permissive licenses are not actually equivalent to releasing a work into the <a href="/wiki/Public_domain#Application_to_copyrightable_works" title="Public domain">public domain</a>. </p><p>Permissive licenses often do stipulate some limited requirements, such as that the original authors must be credited (<i>attribution</i>). If a work is truly in the public domain, this is usually not legally required, but a United States <a href="/wiki/Copyright_registration" title="Copyright registration">copyright registration</a> requires disclosing material that has been previously published,<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and attribution may still be considered an ethical requirement in <a href="/wiki/Academia" class="mw-redirect" title="Academia">academia</a>. </p><p>Advocates of permissive licenses often recommend against attempting to release software to the public domain, on the grounds that this can be legally problematic in some jurisdictions.<sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-19"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>19<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Public-domain-equivalent_license" title="Public-domain-equivalent license">Public-domain-equivalent licenses</a> are an attempt to solve this problem, providing a fallback permissive license for cases where renunciation of copyright is not legally possible, and sometimes also including a disclaimer of warranties similar to most permissive licenses. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="License_compatibility">License compatibility</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Permissive_software_license&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: License compatibility"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951"><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="/wiki/License_compatibility" title="License compatibility">License compatibility</a></div> <figure typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Floss-license-slide-image.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/Floss-license-slide-image.svg/400px-Floss-license-slide-image.svg.png" decoding="async" width="400" height="120" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/Floss-license-slide-image.svg/600px-Floss-license-slide-image.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/Floss-license-slide-image.svg/800px-Floss-license-slide-image.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1400" data-file-height="420" /></a><figcaption>License compatibility between common <a href="/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software" title="Free and open-source software">free and open-source software</a> (FOSS) <a href="/wiki/Software_license" title="Software license">licenses</a> according to David A. Wheeler (2007): the vector arrows denote a one directional compatibility, therefore better compatibility on the left side ("permissive licenses") than on the right side ("copyleft licenses").<sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-20"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>20<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></figcaption></figure> <p>In general permissive licenses have good <a href="/wiki/License_compatibility" title="License compatibility">license compatibility</a> with most other software licenses in most situations.<sup id="cite_ref-compatible_12-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-compatible-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-opensoucecomp_13-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-opensoucecomp-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Due to their non-restrictiveness, most permissive software licenses are even compatible with copyleft licenses, which are incompatible with most other licenses. Some older permissive licenses, such as the <a href="/wiki/BSD_licenses#4-clause_license_(original_"BSD_License")" title="BSD licenses">4-clause BSD license</a>, the <a href="/wiki/PHP_License" title="PHP License">PHP License</a>, and the <a href="/wiki/OpenSSL#Licensing" title="OpenSSL">OpenSSL License</a>, have clauses requiring advertising materials to credit the copyright holder, which made them incompatible with copyleft licenses. Popular modern permissive licenses, however, such as the <a href="/wiki/MIT_License" title="MIT License">MIT License</a>, the 3-clause <a href="/wiki/BSD_license" class="mw-redirect" title="BSD license">BSD license</a> and the <a href="/wiki/Zlib_License" title="Zlib License">zlib license</a>, don't include advertising clauses and are generally compatible with copyleft licenses. </p><p>Some licenses do not allow derived works to add a restriction that says a redistributor cannot add more restrictions. Examples include the <a href="/wiki/Common_Development_and_Distribution_License" title="Common Development and Distribution License">CDDL</a> and <a href="/wiki/Microsoft_Public_License" class="mw-redirect" title="Microsoft Public License">MsPL</a>. However such restrictions also make the license incompatible with permissive free-software licenses.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact" style="white-space:nowrap;">[<i><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources. (June 2020)">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Reception_and_adoption">Reception and adoption</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Permissive_software_license&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Reception and adoption"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>While they have been in use since the mid-1980s,<sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-21"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>21<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> several authors noted an increase in the popularity of permissive licenses during the 2010s.<sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-22"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>22<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>23<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-24" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-24"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>24<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-25"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>25<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>As of 2015,<sup class="plainlinks noexcerpt noprint asof-tag update" style="display:none;"><a class="external text" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Permissive_software_license&action=edit">[update]</a></sup> the <a href="/wiki/MIT_License" title="MIT License">MIT License</a>, a permissive license, is the most popular free software license, followed by <a href="/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License#Version_2" title="GNU General Public License">GPLv2</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-blackduck2015_2-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-blackduck2015-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-github_3-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-github-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Other_terms">Other terms</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Permissive_software_license&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: Other terms"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Non-copyleft">Non-copyleft</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Permissive_software_license&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: Non-copyleft"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1023981488">@media all and (max-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .rquote{width:auto!important;float:none!important}}</style><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"><blockquote class="templatequote rquote" style="float: right; width: 33%;"><p>A "permissive" license is simply a non-copyleft open source license.</p><div class="templatequotecite">— <cite><a href="/wiki/Open_Source_Initiative" title="Open Source Initiative">Open Source Initiative</a>, <sup id="cite_ref-osi-fortune_26-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-osi-fortune-26"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>26<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></cite></div></blockquote> <p>Sometimes the word "permissive" is considered too ambiguous, because all free software licenses are "permissive", in the sense that they all allow to modify and redistribute the source code. In most cases the real opposition is between <a href="/wiki/Copyleft" title="Copyleft">copyleft</a> licenses and non-copyleft ones, thus some authors prefer to use the term "non-copyleft" instead of "permissive".<sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-27"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>27<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-28"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>28<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-osi-fortune_26-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-osi-fortune-26"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>26<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Copycenter">Copycenter</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Permissive_software_license&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: Copycenter"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1023981488"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"><blockquote class="templatequote rquote" style="float: right; width: 33%;"><p>Berkeley had what we called "copycenter," which is "take it down to the copy center and make as many copies as you want."</p><div class="templatequotecite">— <cite><a href="/wiki/Marshall_Kirk_McKusick" title="Marshall Kirk McKusick">Marshall Kirk McKusick</a>, <sup id="cite_ref-mckusick-fortune_29-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-mckusick-fortune-29"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>29<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></cite></div></blockquote> <p><i>Copycenter</i> is a term originally used to explain the <a href="/wiki/BSD_licenses" title="BSD licenses">modified BSD license</a>, a permissive free-software license. The term was presented by <a href="/wiki/Computer_scientist" title="Computer scientist">computer scientist</a> and <a href="/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution" title="Berkeley Software Distribution">Berkeley Software Distribution</a> (BSD) contributor <a href="/wiki/Marshall_Kirk_McKusick" title="Marshall Kirk McKusick">Marshall Kirk McKusick</a> at a BSD conference in 1999. It is a <a href="/wiki/Word_play" title="Word play">word play</a> on <a href="/wiki/Copyright" title="Copyright">copyright</a>, <a href="/wiki/Copyleft" title="Copyleft">copyleft</a> and <a href="/wiki/Copy_center" class="mw-redirect" title="Copy center">copy center</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-mckusick-fortune_29-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-mckusick-fortune-29"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>29<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-30" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-30"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>30<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Pushover_license">Pushover license</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Permissive_software_license&action=edit&section=11" title="Edit section: Pushover license"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1023981488"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"><blockquote class="templatequote rquote" style="float: right; width: 33%;"><p>We call them “pushover licenses” because they can't say “no” when one user tries to deny freedom to others.."</p><div class="templatequotecite">— <cite><a href="/wiki/Richard_Stallman" title="Richard Stallman">Richard Stallman</a>, founder of the <a href="/wiki/GNU" title="GNU">GNU</a> operating system<sup id="cite_ref-stallman-fortune_31-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-stallman-fortune-31"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>31<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></cite></div></blockquote> <p>In the <a href="/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation" title="Free Software Foundation">Free Software Foundation</a>'s guide to license compatibility and relicensing, <a href="/wiki/Richard_Stallman" title="Richard Stallman">Richard Stallman</a> defines permissive licenses as "pushover licenses", comparing them to those people who "can't say no", because they are seen as granting a right to "deny freedom to others."<sup id="cite_ref-stallman-fortune_31-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-stallman-fortune-31"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>31<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The Foundation recommends pushover licenses only for small programs, below 300 lines of code, where "the benefits provided by copyleft are usually too small to justify the inconvenience of making sure a copy of the license always accompanies the software".<sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-32"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>32<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Permissive_software_license&action=edit&section=12" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239009302">.mw-parser-output .portalbox{padding:0;margin:0.5em 0;display:table;box-sizing:border-box;max-width:175px;list-style:none}.mw-parser-output .portalborder{border:1px solid var(--border-color-base,#a2a9b1);padding:0.1em;background:var(--background-color-neutral-subtle,#f8f9fa)}.mw-parser-output .portalbox-entry{display:table-row;font-size:85%;line-height:110%;height:1.9em;font-style:italic;font-weight:bold}.mw-parser-output .portalbox-image{display:table-cell;padding:0.2em;vertical-align:middle;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .portalbox-link{display:table-cell;padding:0.2em 0.2em 0.2em 0.3em;vertical-align:middle}@media(min-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .portalleft{clear:left;float:left;margin:0.5em 1em 0.5em 0}.mw-parser-output .portalright{clear:right;float:right;margin:0.5em 0 0.5em 1em}}</style><ul role="navigation" aria-label="Portals" class="noprint portalbox portalborder portalright"> <li class="portalbox-entry"><span class="portalbox-image"><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><span><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Free_and_open-source_software_logo_%282009%29.svg/28px-Free_and_open-source_software_logo_%282009%29.svg.png" decoding="async" width="28" height="28" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Free_and_open-source_software_logo_%282009%29.svg/42px-Free_and_open-source_software_logo_%282009%29.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Free_and_open-source_software_logo_%282009%29.svg/56px-Free_and_open-source_software_logo_%282009%29.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="512" data-file-height="512" /></span></span></span><span class="portalbox-link"><a href="/wiki/Portal:Free_and_open-source_software" title="Portal:Free and open-source software">Free and open-source software portal</a></span></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Permissive_software_licenses" title="Category:Permissive software licenses">List of permissive software licenses</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/License-free_software" title="License-free software">License-free software</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Public_domain_equivalent_license" class="mw-redirect" title="Public domain equivalent license">Public domain equivalent license</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free-software_license" title="Free-software license">Free-software license</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Comparison_of_free_and_open-source_software_licenses" title="Comparison of free and open-source software licenses">Comparison of free and open-source software licenses</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation" title="Free Software Foundation">Free Software Foundation</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Permissive_software_license&action=edit&section=13" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist reflist-columns references-column-width" style="column-width: 30em;"> <ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-nmr-bsdlike-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-nmr-bsdlike_1-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-nmr-bsdlike_1-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-nmr-bsdlike_1-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite id="CITEREFNew_Media_Rights2008" class="citation web cs1">New Media Rights (2008-09-12). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.newmediarights.org/open_source/new_media_rights_open_source_licensing_guide">"Open Source Licensing Guide"</a>. <i><a href="/wiki/California_Western_School_of_Law" title="California Western School of Law">California Western School of Law</a></i>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=California+Western+School+of+Law&rft.atitle=Open+Source+Licensing+Guide&rft.date=2008-09-12&rft.au=New+Media+Rights&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newmediarights.org%2Fopen_source%2Fnew_media_rights_open_source_licensing_guide&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-blackduck2015-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-blackduck2015_2-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-blackduck2015_2-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160719043600/https://www.blackducksoftware.com/top-open-source-licenses">"Top 20 licenses"</a>. Black Duck Software. 19 November 2015. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.blackducksoftware.com/resources/data/top-20-licenses">the original</a> on 19 July 2016<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">19 November</span> 2015</span>. <q><i>1. MIT license 24%, 2. GNU General Public License (GPL) 2.0 23%, 3. Apache License 16%, 4. GNU General Public License (GPL) 3.0 9%, 5. BSD License 2.0 (3-clause, New or Revised) License 6%, 6. GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) 2.1 5%, 7. Artistic License (Perl) 4%, 8. GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) 3.0 2%, 9. Microsoft Public License 2%, 10. Eclipse Public License (EPL) 2%</i></q></cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Top+20+licenses&rft.pub=Black+Duck+Software&rft.date=2015-11-19&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blackducksoftware.com%2Fresources%2Fdata%2Ftop-20-licenses&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-github-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-github_3-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-github_3-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFBalter2015" class="citation web cs1">Balter, Ben (2015-03-09). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://github.com/blog/1964-license-usage-on-github-com">"Open source license usage on GitHub.com"</a>. <a href="/wiki/Github.com" class="mw-redirect" title="Github.com">github.com</a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2015-11-21</span></span>. <q><span class="cs1-kern-left"></span>"1 MIT 44.69%, 2 Other 15.68%, 3 GPLv2 12.96%, 4 Apache 11.19%, 5 GPLv3 8.88%, 6 BSD 3-clause 4.53%, 7 Unlicense 1.87%, 8 BSD 2-clause 1.70%, 9 LGPLv3 1.30%, 10 AGPLv3 1.05%</q></cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Open+source+license+usage+on+GitHub.com&rft.pub=github.com&rft.date=2015-03-09&rft.aulast=Balter&rft.aufirst=Ben&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fblog%2F1964-license-usage-on-github-com&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GNUAllPermissive">Free Software Foundation, Various Licenses and Comments about Them, GNU All-permissive License</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/html_node/License-Notices-for-Other-Files.html">Information for Maintainers of GNU Software, License Notices for Other Files</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://opensource.org/faq#permissive">permissive</a> on opensource.org "A "permissive" license is simply a non-copyleft open-source license – one that guarantees the freedoms to use, modify and redistribute, but that permits <a href="/wiki/Proprietary_software" title="Proprietary software">proprietary</a> derivatives."</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://choosealicense.com/">Choosing an open-source license doesn't need to be scary</a> on choosealicense.com "Which of the following best describes your situation? – I want it simple and permissive."</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html">"What is Copyleft"</a>. GNU<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">21 April</span> 2011</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=What+is+Copyleft&rft.pub=GNU&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnu.org%2Fcopyleft%2Fcopyleft.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Categories_of_free_and_nonfree_software-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Categories_of_free_and_nonfree_software_9-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html">"Categories of free and nonfree software"</a>. gnu.org.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Categories+of+free+and+nonfree+software&rft.pub=gnu.org&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnu.org%2Fphilosophy%2Fcategories.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-android-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-android_10-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFAmadeo2018" class="citation web cs1">Amadeo, Ron (21 July 2018). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/googles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/">"Google's iron grip on Android: Controlling open source by any means necessary"</a>. <i>Ars Technica</i>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Ars+Technica&rft.atitle=Google%27s+iron+grip+on+Android%3A+Controlling+open+source+by+any+means+necessary&rft.date=2018-07-21&rft.aulast=Amadeo&rft.aufirst=Ron&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fgadgets%2F2018%2F07%2Fgoogles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-11">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">With this in mind, the <a href="/wiki/FreeBSD" title="FreeBSD">FreeBSD</a> project advocates permissive licenses for companies and commercial use-cases: they say that they place only <i>"minimal restrictions on future behavior"</i> and argue that copyleft licenses are <i>"legal time-bombs"</i>. See <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFMontague2013" class="citation web cs1">Montague, Bruce (2013-11-13). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/bsdl-gpl/article.html">"Why you should use a BSD style license for your Open Source Project"</a>. <a href="/wiki/FreeBSD" title="FreeBSD">FreeBSD</a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2015-11-28</span></span>. <q>9. GPL Advantages and Disadvantages [..] 12. Conclusion<br />In contrast to the GPL, which is designed to prevent the proprietary commercialization of open-source code, the BSD license places minimal restrictions on future behavior. This allows BSD code to remain open source or become integrated into commercial solutions, as a project's or company's needs change. In other words, the BSD license does not become a legal time-bomb at any point in the development process.<br /><br />In addition, since the BSD license does not come with the legal complexity of the GPL or LGPL licenses, it allows developers and companies to spend their time creating and promoting good code rather than worrying if that code violates licensing.</q></cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Why+you+should+use+a+BSD+style+license+for+your+Open+Source+Project&rft.pub=FreeBSD&rft.date=2013-11-13&rft.aulast=Montague&rft.aufirst=Bruce&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freebsd.org%2Fdoc%2Fen_US.ISO8859-1%2Farticles%2Fbsdl-gpl%2Farticle.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-compatible-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-compatible_12-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-compatible_12-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150617130550/https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/software/page/licence_compatibility_and_interoperability">"Licence Compatibility"</a>. <i>European Union Public Licence</i>. joinup.ec.europa.eu. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/software/page/licence_compatibility_and_interoperability">the original</a> on 2015-06-17<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2015-05-30</span></span>. <q><i>The licenses for distributing free or open source software (FOSS) are divided in two families: permissive and copyleft. Permissive licenses (BSD, MIT, X11, Apache, Zope) are generally compatible and interoperable with most other licenses, tolerating to merge, combine or improve the covered code and to re-distribute it under many licenses (including non-free or "proprietary").</i></q></cite><i><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=European+Union+Public+Licence&rft.atitle=Licence+Compatibility&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fjoinup.ec.europa.eu%2Fsoftware%2Fpage%2Flicence_compatibility_and_interoperability&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></i></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-opensoucecomp-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-opensoucecomp_13-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-opensoucecomp_13-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFHanwell2014" class="citation web cs1">Hanwell, Marcus D. (2014-01-28). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://opensource.com/business/14/1/what-license-should-i-use-open-source-project">"Should I use a permissive license? Copyleft? Or something in the middle?"</a>. opensource.com<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2015-05-30</span></span>. <q><i>Permissive licensing simplifies things One reason the business world, and more and more developers [...], favor permissive licenses is in the simplicity of reuse. The license usually only pertains to the source code that is licensed and makes no attempt to infer any conditions upon any other component, and because of this there is no need to define what constitutes a derived work. I have also never seen a license compatibility chart for permissive licenses; it seems that they are all compatible.</i></q></cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Should+I+use+a+permissive+license%3F+Copyleft%3F+Or+something+in+the+middle%3F&rft.pub=opensource.com&rft.date=2014-01-28&rft.aulast=Hanwell&rft.aufirst=Marcus+D.&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fopensource.com%2Fbusiness%2F14%2F1%2Fwhat-license-should-i-use-open-source-project&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-gpl2gpl3comp-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-gpl2gpl3comp_14-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#v2v3Compatibility">"Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU Licenses – Is GPLv3 compatible with GPLv2?"</a>. gnu.org<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2014-06-03</span></span>. <q><i>No. Some of the requirements in GPLv3, such as the requirement to provide Installation Information, do not exist in GPLv2. As a result, the licenses are not compatible: if you tried to combine code released under both these licenses, you would violate section 6 of GPLv2. However, if code is released under GPL "version 2 or later," that is compatible with GPLv3 because GPLv3 is one of the options it permits.</i></q></cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Frequently+Asked+Questions+about+the+GNU+Licenses+%26ndash%3B%26%2332%3BIs+GPLv3+compatible+with+GPLv2%3F&rft.pub=gnu.org&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnu.org%2Flicenses%2Fgpl-faq.html%23v2v3Compatibility&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-landley2013-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-landley2013_15-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFLandley" class="citation web cs1">Landley, Rob. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://landley.net/talks/celf-2013.txt">"CELF 2013 Toybox talk"</a>. <i>landley.net</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2013-08-21</span></span>. <q><i>GPLv3 broke "the" GPL into incompatible forks that can't share code.</i></q></cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=landley.net&rft.atitle=CELF+2013+Toybox+talk&rft.aulast=Landley&rft.aufirst=Rob&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Flandley.net%2Ftalks%2Fcelf-2013.txt&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-fsf-cddl-16"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-fsf-cddl_16-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/zfs-and-linux">"Interpreting, enforcing and changing the GNU GPL, as applied to combining Linux and ZFS"</a>. fsf.org<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2020-06-08</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Interpreting%2C+enforcing+and+changing+the+GNU+GPL%2C+as+applied+to+combining+Linux+and+ZFS&rft.pub=fsf.org&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fsf.org%2Flicensing%2Fzfs-and-linux&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-17"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-17">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.copyright.gov/forms/notice.html">US Copyright Office Form CO</a>; see also <i><a href="/wiki/DBase#dBase_programming_language" title="DBase">Ashton-Tate v. Fox</a></i></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-18"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-18">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.openbsd.org/policy.html">"OpenBSD Copyright Policy"</a>. The OpenBSD project<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2020-06-09</span></span>. <q>In some jurisdictions, it is doubtful whether voluntarily placing one's own work into the public domain is legally possible. For that reason, to make any substantial body of code free, it is preferable to state the copyright and put it under an ISC or BSD license instead of attempting to release it into the public domain.</q></cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=OpenBSD+Copyright+Policy&rft.pub=The+OpenBSD+project&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.openbsd.org%2Fpolicy.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-19"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-19">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFHipp" class="citation web cs1">Hipp, D. Richard. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://changelog.com/podcast/201#transcript-215">"Why SQLite succeeded as a database"</a>. The Changelog. <q>Also at the time I did not realize, having lived my whole life in the United States, which is, you know, under British common law, where the public domain is something that's recognized. I did not realize that there were a lot of jurisdictions in the world where it's difficult or impossible for someone to place their works in the public domain. I didn't know. So that's a complication.</q></cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Why+SQLite+succeeded+as+a+database&rft.pub=The+Changelog&rft.aulast=Hipp&rft.aufirst=D.+Richard&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fchangelog.com%2Fpodcast%2F201%23transcript-215&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-20"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-20">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://dwheeler.com/essays/floss-license-slide.html">The Free-Libre / Open Source Software (FLOSS) License Slide</a> by David A. Wheeler on October 4, 2021</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-21"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-21">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFHaff" class="citation web cs1">Haff, Gordon. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://opensource.com/article/19/4/history-mit-license">"The mysterious history of the MIT License"</a>. opensource.com<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2020-06-08</span></span>. <q><i>[There's] a good argument to be made that the MIT License, also called the X Consortium or X11 License at the time, crystallized with X11 in 1987, and that's the best date to use. You could argue it was created in 1985 with possible adjustments over the next couple of years.</i></q></cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=The+mysterious+history+of+the+MIT+License&rft.pub=opensource.com&rft.aulast=Haff&rft.aufirst=Gordon&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fopensource.com%2Farticle%2F19%2F4%2Fhistory-mit-license&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-22"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-22">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFVaughan-Nichols" class="citation web cs1">Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-fall-of-gpl-and-the-rise-of-permissive-open-source-licenses/">"The fall of GPL and the rise of permissive open-source licenses"</a>. <a href="/wiki/ZDNet" class="mw-redirect" title="ZDNet">ZDNet</a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2015-11-28</span></span>. <q><i>The GPL is still the world's most popular open-source license but it's declining in use, while permissive licenses are gaining more fans, and some developers are choosing to release code without any license at all.</i></q></cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=The+fall+of+GPL+and+the+rise+of+permissive+open-source+licenses&rft.pub=ZDNet&rft.aulast=Vaughan-Nichols&rft.aufirst=Steven+J.&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zdnet.com%2Farticle%2Fthe-fall-of-gpl-and-the-rise-of-permissive-open-source-licenses%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-23"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-23">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFRonacher2013" class="citation web cs1">Ronacher, Armin (2013-07-23). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2013/7/23/licensing/">"Licensing in a Post Copyright World"</a>. lucumr.pocoo.org<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2015-11-18</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Licensing+in+a+Post+Copyright+World&rft.pub=lucumr.pocoo.org&rft.date=2013-07-23&rft.aulast=Ronacher&rft.aufirst=Armin&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Flucumr.pocoo.org%2F2013%2F7%2F23%2Flicensing%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-24"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-24">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFAslett2011" class="citation web cs1">Aslett, Matthew (2011-06-06). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151013085257/https://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2011/06/06/the-trend-towards-permissive-licensing/">"The trend towards permissive licensing"</a>. the451group.com. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2011/06/06/the-trend-towards-permissive-licensing/">the original</a> on 2015-10-13<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2015-11-28</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=The+trend+towards+permissive+licensing&rft.pub=the451group.com&rft.date=2011-06-06&rft.aulast=Aslett&rft.aufirst=Matthew&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fblogs.the451group.com%2Fopensource%2F2011%2F06%2F06%2Fthe-trend-towards-permissive-licensing%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-25"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-25">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://opensource.com/law/13/5/does-your-code-need-license">Does your code need a license?</a> Posted 02 May 2013 by Jason Hibbets "Q: Are there software-development companies favoring a certain open-source license over another? What is the trend in the community? A: We're definitely seeing some trends away from copyleft licenses—mostly towards permissive licenses"</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-osi-fortune-26"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-osi-fortune_26-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-osi-fortune_26-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://opensource.org/faq#permissive">"Frequently Asked Questions | Open Source Initiative"</a>. <i><a href="/wiki/Open_Source_Initiative" title="Open Source Initiative">Open Source Initiative</a></i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2022-08-09</span></span>. <q>A 'permissive' license is simply a non-copyleft open source license</q></cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Open+Source+Initiative&rft.atitle=Frequently+Asked+Questions+%7C+Open+Source+Initiative&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fopensource.org%2Ffaq%23permissive&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-27"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-27">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://kbdeveloper.qoppa.com/copyleft-versus-non-copyleft-licenses-in-free-open-source-software/">"Copyleft versus non-copyleft licenses in free / open source software"</a>. <i>Qoppa Software</i>. 2014-11-21<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2022-08-09</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Qoppa+Software&rft.atitle=Copyleft+versus+non-copyleft+licenses+in+free+%2F+open+source+software&rft.date=2014-11-21&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fkbdeveloper.qoppa.com%2Fcopyleft-versus-non-copyleft-licenses-in-free-open-source-software%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-28"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-28">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFSenSubramaniamNelson2011" class="citation journal cs1">Sen, Ravi; Subramaniam, Chandrasekar; Nelson, Matthew L. (2011). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://mays.tamu.edu/research/open-source-software-licenses-strong-copyleft-non-copyleft-or-somewhere-in-between/">"Open Source Software Licenses: Strong-Copyleft, Non-Copyleft, or Somewhere in Between?"</a>. <i>Decision Support Systems</i>. <b>52</b> (1): 199–206. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.dss.2011.07.004">10.1016/j.dss.2011.07.004</a>. <a href="/wiki/ISSN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISSN (identifier)">ISSN</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0167-9236">0167-9236</a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2022-08-09</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Decision+Support+Systems&rft.atitle=Open+Source+Software+Licenses%3A+Strong-Copyleft%2C+Non-Copyleft%2C+or+Somewhere+in+Between%3F&rft.volume=52&rft.issue=1&rft.pages=199-206&rft.date=2011&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1016%2Fj.dss.2011.07.004&rft.issn=0167-9236&rft.aulast=Sen&rft.aufirst=Ravi&rft.au=Subramaniam%2C+Chandrasekar&rft.au=Nelson%2C+Matthew+L.&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fmays.tamu.edu%2Fresearch%2Fopen-source-software-licenses-strong-copyleft-non-copyleft-or-somewhere-in-between%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-mckusick-fortune-29"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-mckusick-fortune_29-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-mckusick-fortune_29-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd/commit/60a677e4faa8053b9d87688d1a5575d1331fc8ce">"Add Kirk's comment about "copycenter"; it's just too good to pass up"</a>. Historical FreeBSD <a href="/wiki/Fortune_(Unix)" title="Fortune (Unix)">fortune(6)</a> database<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2020-06-08</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Add+Kirk%27s+comment+about+%22copycenter%22%3B+it%27s+just+too+good+to+pass+up.&rft.pub=Historical+FreeBSD+fortune%286%29+database&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Ffreebsd%2Ffreebsd%2Fcommit%2F60a677e4faa8053b9d87688d1a5575d1331fc8ce&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-30"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-30">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFRaymond" class="citation web cs1">Raymond, Eric S. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/C/copycenter.html">"copycenter"</a>. The Jargon File.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=copycenter&rft.pub=The+Jargon+File&rft.aulast=Raymond&rft.aufirst=Eric+S.&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.catb.org%2Fjargon%2Fhtml%2FC%2Fcopycenter.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-stallman-fortune-31"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-stallman-fortune_31-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-stallman-fortune_31-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFStallman2016" class="citation web cs1">Stallman, Richard (2016-02-08). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-compatibility.html">"License Compatibility and Relicensing"</a>. <a href="/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation" title="Free Software Foundation">Free Software Foundation</a><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2019-09-29</span></span>. <q><i>In general, lax permissive licenses (<a href="/wiki/BSD_licenses#3-clause_license_("BSD_License_2.0",_"Revised_BSD_License",_"New_BSD_License",_or_"Modified_BSD_License")" title="BSD licenses">modified BSD</a>, <a href="/wiki/MIT_License" title="MIT License">X11</a>, <a href="/wiki/MIT_License#Ambiguity_and_variants" title="MIT License">Expat</a>, <a href="/wiki/Apache_License" title="Apache License">Apache</a>, <a href="/wiki/Python_Software_Foundation_License" title="Python Software Foundation License">Python</a>, etc.) are compatible with each other. That's because they have no requirements about other code that is added to the program. They even permit putting the entire program (perhaps with changes) into a proprietary software product; thus, we call them "pushover licenses" because they can't say "no" when one user tries to deny freedom to others.</i></q></cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=License+Compatibility+and+Relicensing&rft.pub=Free+Software+Foundation&rft.date=2016-02-08&rft.aulast=Stallman&rft.aufirst=Richard&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnu.org%2Flicenses%2Flicense-compatibility.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3APermissive+software+license" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-32"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-32">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-recommendations.html#small">How to choose a license for your own work – Free Software Foundation</a></span> </li> </ol></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Permissive_software_license&action=edit&section=14" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1235681985">.mw-parser-output .side-box{margin:4px 0;box-sizing:border-box;border:1px solid #aaa;font-size:88%;line-height:1.25em;background-color:var(--background-color-interactive-subtle,#f8f9fa);display:flow-root}.mw-parser-output .side-box-abovebelow,.mw-parser-output .side-box-text{padding:0.25em 0.9em}.mw-parser-output .side-box-image{padding:2px 0 2px 0.9em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .side-box-imageright{padding:2px 0.9em 2px 0;text-align:center}@media(min-width:500px){.mw-parser-output .side-box-flex{display:flex;align-items:center}.mw-parser-output .side-box-text{flex:1;min-width:0}}@media(min-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .side-box{width:238px}.mw-parser-output .side-box-right{clear:right;float:right;margin-left:1em}.mw-parser-output .side-box-left{margin-right:1em}}</style><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1237033735">@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .sistersitebox{display:none!important}}@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .sistersitebox img[src*="Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg"]{background-color:white}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .sistersitebox img[src*="Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg"]{background-color:white}}</style><div class="side-box side-box-right plainlinks sistersitebox"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1126788409">.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul{line-height:inherit;list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol li,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul li{margin-bottom:0}</style> <div class="side-box-flex"> <div class="side-box-image"><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><span><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/Wikibooks-logo-en-noslogan.svg/40px-Wikibooks-logo-en-noslogan.svg.png" decoding="async" width="40" height="40" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/Wikibooks-logo-en-noslogan.svg/60px-Wikibooks-logo-en-noslogan.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/Wikibooks-logo-en-noslogan.svg/80px-Wikibooks-logo-en-noslogan.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="400" data-file-height="400" /></span></span></div> <div class="side-box-text plainlist">Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: <i><b><a href="https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FOSS_Licensing" class="extiw" title="wikibooks:FOSS Licensing">FOSS Licensing</a></b></i></div></div> </div> <div class="navbox-styles"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1129693374">.mw-parser-output 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abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}}@media print{.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:none!important}}</style><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:FOSS" title="Template:FOSS"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:FOSS" title="Template talk:FOSS"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:FOSS" title="Special:EditPage/Template:FOSS"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="Free_and_open-source_software" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software" title="Free and open-source software">Free and open-source software</a></div></th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">General</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Alternative_terms_for_free_software" title="Alternative terms for free software">Alternative terms for free software</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Comparison_of_open-source_and_closed-source_software" title="Comparison of open-source and closed-source software">Comparison of open-source and closed-source software</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Comparison_of_source-code-hosting_facilities" title="Comparison of source-code-hosting facilities">Comparison of source-code-hosting facilities</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_software" title="Free software">Free software</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_free_software_project_directories" title="List of free software project directories">Free software project directories</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gratis_versus_libre" title="Gratis versus libre">Gratis versus libre</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Long-term_support" title="Long-term support">Long-term support</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Open-source_software" title="Open-source software">Open-source software</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Open-source_software_development" title="Open-source software development">Open-source software development</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Outline_of_free_software" title="Outline of free software">Outline</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Timeline_of_free_and_open-source_software" title="Timeline of free and open-source software">Timeline</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/List_of_free_and_open-source_software_packages" title="List of free and open-source software packages">Software<br />packages</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Comparison_of_free_software_for_audio" title="Comparison of free software for audio">Audio</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_open-source_bioinformatics_software" title="List of open-source bioinformatics software">Bioinformatics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_open-source_codecs" title="List of open-source codecs">Codecs</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Comparison_of_open-source_configuration_management_software" title="Comparison of open-source configuration management software">Configuration management</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Device_driver" title="Device driver">Drivers</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Free_and_open-source_graphics_device_driver" title="Free and open-source graphics device driver">Graphics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Comparison_of_open-source_wireless_drivers" title="Comparison of open-source wireless drivers">Wireless</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_open-source_health_software" title="List of open-source health software">Health</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_open-source_software_for_mathematics" title="List of open-source software for mathematics">Mathematics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_office_suites" title="List of office suites">Office suites</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Comparison_of_open-source_operating_systems" title="Comparison of open-source operating systems">Operating systems</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_open-source_routing_platforms" title="List of open-source routing platforms">Routing</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_free_television_software" title="List of free television software">Television</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_open-source_video_games" title="List of open-source video games">Video games</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_free_and_open-source_web_applications" title="List of free and open-source web applications">Web applications</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Comparison_of_shopping_cart_software" title="Comparison of shopping cart software">E-commerce</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_free_and_open-source_Android_applications" title="List of free and open-source Android applications">Android apps</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_free_and_open-source_iOS_applications" title="List of free and open-source iOS applications">iOS apps</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_commercial_open-source_applications_and_services" title="List of commercial open-source applications and services">Commercial</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_formerly_proprietary_software" title="List of formerly proprietary software">Formerly proprietary</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_formerly_free_and_open-source_software" class="mw-redirect" title="List of formerly free and open-source software">Formerly open-source</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Community_of_practice" title="Community of practice">Community</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Free_software_movement" title="Free software movement">Free software movement</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/History_of_free_and_open-source_software" title="History of free and open-source software">History</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Open-source-software_movement" title="Open-source-software movement">Open-source-software movement</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_free-software_events" title="List of free-software events">Events</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Open-source_software_advocacy" title="Open-source software advocacy">Advocacy</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/List_of_free_and_open-source_software_organizations" title="List of free and open-source software organizations">Organisations</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Free_Software_Movement_of_India" title="Free Software Movement of India">Free Software Movement of India</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation" title="Free Software Foundation">Free Software Foundation</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Free-software_license" title="Free-software license">Licenses</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Academic_Free_License" title="Academic Free License">AFL</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Apache_License" title="Apache License">Apache</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Apple_Public_Source_License" title="Apple Public Source License">APSL</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Artistic_License" title="Artistic License">Artistic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Beerware" title="Beerware">Beerware</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/BSD_licenses" title="BSD licenses">BSD</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Creative_Commons_license" title="Creative Commons license">Creative Commons</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Common_Development_and_Distribution_License" title="Common Development and Distribution License">CDDL</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Eclipse_Public_License" title="Eclipse Public License">EPL</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation" title="Free Software Foundation">Free Software Foundation</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License" title="GNU General Public License">GNU GPL</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/GNU_Affero_General_Public_License" title="GNU Affero General Public License">GNU AGPL</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/GNU_Lesser_General_Public_License" title="GNU Lesser General Public License">GNU LGPL</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/ISC_license" title="ISC license">ISC</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/MIT_License" title="MIT License">MIT</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mozilla_Public_License" title="Mozilla Public License">MPL</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Python_License" title="Python License">Python</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Python_Software_Foundation_License" title="Python Software Foundation License">Python Software Foundation License</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Shared_Source_Initiative" title="Shared Source Initiative">Shared Source Initiative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sleepycat_License" class="mw-redirect" title="Sleepycat License">Sleepycat</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Unlicense" title="Unlicense">Unlicense</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/WTFPL" title="WTFPL">WTFPL</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Zlib_License" title="Zlib License">zlib</a></li></ul> </div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><th id="Types_and_standards" scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Types and<br /> standards</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Comparison_of_free_and_open-source_software_licenses" title="Comparison of free and open-source software licenses">Comparison of licenses</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Contributor_License_Agreement" title="Contributor License Agreement">Contributor License Agreement</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Copyleft" title="Copyleft">Copyleft</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Debian_Free_Software_Guidelines" class="mw-redirect" title="Debian Free Software Guidelines">Debian Free Software Guidelines</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Definition_of_Free_Cultural_Works" title="Definition of Free Cultural Works">Definition of Free Cultural Works</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_license" title="Free license">Free license</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/The_Free_Software_Definition" title="The Free Software Definition">The Free Software Definition</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/The_Open_Source_Definition" title="The Open Source Definition">The Open Source Definition</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Open-source_license" title="Open-source license">Open-source license</a></li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Permissive software license</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Public_domain" title="Public domain">Public domain</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Challenges</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Digital_rights_management" title="Digital rights management">Digital rights management</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/License_proliferation" title="License proliferation">License proliferation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mozilla_software_rebranded_by_Debian" class="mw-redirect" title="Mozilla software rebranded by Debian">Mozilla software rebranding</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Proprietary_device_driver" class="mw-redirect" title="Proprietary device driver">Proprietary device drivers</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Proprietary_firmware" title="Proprietary firmware">Proprietary firmware</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Proprietary_software" title="Proprietary software">Proprietary software</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/SCO%E2%80%93Linux_disputes" title="SCO–Linux disputes">SCO/Linux controversies</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Software_patents_and_free_software" title="Software patents and free software">Software patents</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Open-source_software_security" title="Open-source software security">Software security</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tivoization" title="Tivoization">Tivoization</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Trusted_Computing" title="Trusted Computing">Trusted Computing</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Related <br />topics</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Fork_(software_development)" title="Fork (software development)">Forking</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/GNU_Manifesto" title="GNU Manifesto">GNU Manifesto</a></i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Microsoft_Open_Specification_Promise" title="Microsoft Open Specification Promise">Microsoft Open Specification 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