Business Success with Open Source

Basics of Licensing

What exactly is a license? In the context of intellectual property, the license declares what can and can’t be done with a copyrighted work, by whom, and under what conditions. Because they’re giving permissions for intellectual property, licenses are legal instruments that are enforceable by law. While they don’t necessarily need to be formal or even be written down at all, it’s difficult and risky to try to enforce an oral license.

The instant a work exists in fixed form, the creator (also known as an “author” in legalese, even if the work isn’t literary) has all the rights to it. Only the copyright owner can use, copy, modify, distribute, or otherwise take action on or with that work. This is called All Rights Reserved. ...