Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law

How Licenses Are Chosen

I have been involved with the open source community long enough to recognize that decisions in projects about licensing strategy are almost always thoughtfully and carefully considered. Indeed, I learned far more about open source licensing from listening to those online licensing discussions than I ever learned about this topic in law school. The leaders of open source projects are knowledgeable about the law, committed to the principles of open source, and determined to create a commons of free software available to all. And so they write and choose licenses with intelligence and passion.

For many commercial companies, the discussion of which license to use, at least in the early stages, often centers on one or both ...