license/licensing

When is the proper time to append an existing license? If I modify or add few lines of code as patch to an existing source code, let say a device driver having a 4-clause BSD license and I want to append a 2-clause BSD license, then, is this an appropriate action? Thanks!

In my opinion, FooGPLv3 are better for proprietary dual-licensing than they are for actually helping the open-source community. The Tivoization and DRM clauses are obnoxious restrictions that make embedded use diffucult. What purpose do these even solve anyway? They are just ideology. How are...

OSL 3.0 (Open Source License) - Good GPL alternative, that it allows linking, as linked code isn't considered a derivative work. Contributed code must be reciprocated, while linked code doesn't have to be. It has a patent retaliation clause. Oddly, this license has a similarity to the AGPL...

On reading the SSPL, I can see how it can be interpreted in two ways. The "Sane Way" is just opensourcing your backend. The "Insane Way" is opensourcing your backend, drivers, BIOS and microcode (and possibly more!). I don't know how this software should be allowed in the ports collection. It is...

why-freebsd-is-the-right-choice-for-embedded-devices.96876 implies, as if copyleft in itself isn't good. Copyleft as in CDDL, MPL and similar licenses actually work well, bc they don't have viralness beyond well defined borders, in those cases files. Also, LGPL isn't so bad either, but its...

The purpose of a file-based non-viral, copyleft work copy license, would be to preserve freedom of code throughout forks and variations, while further preserving freedom of use outside of code outside of this directory. Freedom for use of code would be preserved, because when a derivative or...

We have lots of licenses in the Open Source / Free Software world. CDDL, GNU GPL v.1/2/3, BSD, MIT, and more. Even QT Company has its own licenses that dictate what you may or may not do with their software. And those licenses do have purposes - like controlling the extent of plagiarism, making...

There have been debates about which licenses or license types are best for preserving opensource freedom. I believe file-based weak copyleft licenses are exceptional. The purpose would be keeping code separate, while allowing use in some form. Dynamic linking is enough for most purposes, which...

I'm building a new application in C (not specifically for FreeBSD), and I would like to use a BSD-3-Clause or BSD-2-Clause license (I'm still trying to figure out if 3 clause is even worth it?), but I'm very picky about the differences between the FreeBSD license and the SPDX license as seen...

I would like to get some clarification on FreeBSD driver licensing and what is permissible. Lets say I want to contribute a driver for INA3221 under the most permissive license. BSD-2 clause. What is the critera for looking at other licensed code. Is it allowed at all? No copying obviously...

What's the difference between GPLv2,GPLv3,apache,bsd,Lgpl ? Is it important

Inspired by another thread, I remembered something I have in mind for quite some time now: It seems we all have different opinions about what "free software" actually means. Among BSD users, I kind of expect the BSD licenses to "win" such a poll. Still I'm interested in comments. When exactly...

Apache 2.0 isn't compatible with GPL2, because of patent and infringement differences. LGPL2 also has mention of these terms, so I don't expect Apache 2.0 to compatible with it either. Apache 2.0 is determined compatible with GPL3. Of note, LGPL3 doesn't have mention of infringement and patents...

Mozilla Public License (MPL) 2.0 is more than about Mozilla created software. The Mozilla Foundation is a steward of its licenses also intended for use in software development by other authors. It's similar to how the Apache Foundation is a strong backer of its current license. Mozilla Public...

Hey folks, i'm an absolute novice when it comes to freebsd. never installed the base OS. my experience with it is through pfsense. that will change in time however (meaning, when resources become available, i will set up a freebsd box to learn on). that being said. BSD is incredible. Hats...

Marak Squires is the author of two well known and used libraries on NPM, colors and faker. colors gets 20 million downloads a week with 19.000 projects relying on it, while faker has 2.8 million weekly downloads and 2.500 dependants. Suddenly users were startled, because programs using these...

I did use GPL code in my software and was forced to release it as GPL, too. But the programming language I use doesn't have it own compiler but it first compile to intermediate C code and relying on GCC to produce the binary. The intermediate C code is completely unreadable by human. I don't...

I am looking at the differences between GPL and BSD - does it matter if the program language is GPL if you wanted to release a project as BSD license? I wanted to use Java; however, the great Oracle has me second guessing that choice. Python, I think... has a BSD like license that is compatible...

Folks, I have a difficulty in understanding some licence requirements. For Berkeley it appears to be simple: you can do everything. For GPL, as far as I understood, you are required to publish any further developments again under the original GPL license. But, as I thought, plainly running...

I am interested in using only BSD licensed software for my routers and software switches. Problem is my favorite DHCP server is dns/dnsmasq but it uses a GPL license. ISC DHCP server no longer uses the ISC license, which was compatible with BSD/MIT style license. But the problem is that ISC DHCP...