Comparison of free software licences

This is a comparison of published free software licences.

General comparison

The following table compares various features of each license and is a general guide to the terms and conditions of each license.

License	Author	Latest version	Publication date	Link from code with a different license	Release changes under a different license
Academic Free License	Lawrence E. Rosen	3	2002
Apache License	Apache Software Foundation	2.0	2004
Apple Public Source License	Apple Computer	2.0	August 6, 2003
Artistic License	Larry Wall	2.0	2000
Berkeley Database License	Sleepycat Software, inc.
BSD license	Regents of the University of California
Boost Software License		1.0	August 17, 2003
Common Development and Distribution License	Sun Microsystems	1.0	December 1, 2004
Common Public License	IBM	1.0	May 2001
Creative Commons licenses	Creative Commons	3.0	December 16, 2002
Cryptix General License	Cryptix Foundation		1995
Eclipse Public License	Eclipse Foundation	1.0
Educational Community License		1.0
Eiffel Forum License	NICE	2	2002
GNU General Public License	Free Software Foundation	3.0	June 2007
GNU Lesser General Public License	Free Software Foundation	3.0	June 2007
Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement	Hacktivismo/Cult of the Dead Cow		November 26, 2002
IBM Public License	IBM	1.0	August 1999
Intel Open Source License	Intel Corporation
ISC licence	Internet Systems Consortium
LaTeX Project Public License	LaTeX project	1.3c
MIT license / X11 license	MIT		1988
Mozilla Public License	Mozilla Foundation	1.1			Limited
Netscape Public License	Netscape	1.1
Open Software License	Lawrence Rosen	3.0
OpenSSL license	OpenSSL Project
PHP License	PHP Group	3.01
Poetic License	Alex Genaud	1.0	2005
Python Software Foundation License	Python Software Foundation	2
Q Public License	Trolltech
Sun Industry Standards Source License	Sun Microsystems
Sun Public License	Sun Microsystems
Sybase Open Watcom Public License
W3C Software Notice and License
XFree86 1.1 License
zlib/libpng license
Zope Public License
License	Author	Latest version	Publication date	Link from code with a different license	Release changes under a different license

Approvals

This table lists for each licence what organizations from the free software community have approved it - be it as a "free software" or as an “open source” licence - and how those organizations categorize it. Organizations usually approve specific versions of software licences.

Licence and specific version	FSF approval	Compatible to the GPL	OSI approval	DFSG approval	Fedora approval
Academic Free License
Apache License version 1
Apache License version 1.1
Apache License version 2
Apple Public Source License version 1.x
Apple Public Source License version 2.0
Artistic License 1.0
Clarified Artistic License (draft 2.0)
Artistic License 2.0
Berkeley Database License
original BSD license
modified BSD license
Boost Software License
Common Development and Distribution License
Common Public License
Creative Commons licenses (Tags: by & sa)
Creative Commons licenses (Tags: nc & nd)					by-nd only
Cryptix General License
Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License
Eclipse Public License
Educational Community License
Eiffel Forum License version 2
GNU General Public License
GNU Lesser General Public License
Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement
IBM Public License
Intel Open Source License
ISC licence
LaTeX Project Public License
MIT license
Mozilla Public License
Netscape Public License
Open Software License
OpenSSL license
PHP License					v3.0/3.01 only, others are unknown
POV-Ray-Licence
Python Software Foundation License 2.0.1; 2.1.1 and newer
Q Public License
Sun Industry Standards Source License
Sun Public License
Sybase Open Watcom Public License
W3C Software Notice and License
XFree86 1.1 License
zlib/libpng license
Zope Public License version 1.0
Zope Public License version 2.0
Licence and specific version	FSF approval	Compatible to the GPL	OSI approval	DFSG approval	Fedora approval

Notes

• Was never revised.
• Compatible to version 3 of the GPL but not compatible to version 2.
• The original version of the Artistic License is defined as non-free because it is overly vague, not because the substance of the licence. The FSF encourages projects to use the Clarified Artistic License instead.
• Incompatible with the BSD license.
• Only the modified license, without the advertising clause.

References

See also

• List of software licenses