Comparison of software licences

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This is a comparison of published software licences.

1 General comparison
2 Approvals
3 Notes
4 References
5 See also

[edit] General comparison

The following table compares various features of the license. This should not be taken as legal advice, but instead a general guide to the terms a license contains.^[1]

Licence	Author	Latest version	Publication date	Link from code with a different license	Release changes under a different license
Academic Free License	?	?	?	?	?
Apache License	Apache Software Foundation	2.0	2004	Yes	Yes
Apple Public Source License	?	?	?	Yes	No
Artistic License	?	2.0	?	Yes	With restrictions
Berkeley Database License	?	?	?	?	?
BSD license	?	?	?	Yes	Yes
Common Development and Distribution License	?	?	?	?	?
Common Public License	?	?	?	?	No
Cryptix General License	?	?	?	?	?
Eclipse Public License	?	?	?	?	?
GNU General Public License	Free Software Foundation	2.0	June 1991	No	No
GNU Lesser General Public License	Free Software Foundation	2.1	February 1999	Yes	No
Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement	?	?	?	?	?
IBM Public License	?	?	?	?	?
Intel Open Source License	?	?	?	?	?
LaTeX Project Public License	?	?	?	?	?
License of Python	?	?	?	?	?
MIT license	?	?	?	Yes	Yes
Mozilla Public License	?	?	?	Yes	No
Netscape Public License	?	?	?	?	?
Open Software License	?	?	?	?	?
OpenSSL license	?	?	?	?	?
PHP License	?	?	?	?	?
Q Public License	?	?	?	No	No
Sun Industry Standards Source License	?	?	?	?	?
Sun Public License	?	?	?	Yes	No
W3C Software Notice and License	?	?	?	Yes	Yes
X11 license	?	?	?	Yes	Yes
XFree86 1.1 License	?	?	?	?	?
zlib/libpng license	?	?	?	?	?
Zope Public License	?	?	?	?	?

[edit] Approvals

This table lists for each licence what organizations have approved it, and how those organizations categorize it. Organizations usually approve specific versions of software licences.

Licence and specific version	FSF approval^[2]	OSI approval^[3]
Academic Free License	Yes¹	Yes
Apache License	Yes¹	Yes
Apple Public Source License version 1.x	No	Yes
Apple Public Source License version 2.0	Yes¹	Yes
Artistic License	No²	Yes
Clarified Artistic License	Yes	Yes
Berkeley Database License	Yes	Yes
BSD license	Yes	Yes
Common Development and Distribution License	Yes¹	Yes
Common Public License	Yes¹	Yes
Cryptix General License	Yes	No
Eclipse Public License	Yes¹	Yes
GNU General Public License	Yes	Yes
GNU Lesser General Public License	Yes	Yes
Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement	No	No
IBM Public License	Yes¹	Yes
Intel Open Source License	Yes	Yes
LaTeX Project Public License	Yes¹	No
License of Python	Yes	Yes
MIT license	Yes	Yes
Mozilla Public License	Yes¹	Yes
Netscape Public License	Yes¹	No
Open Software License	Yes¹	Yes
OpenSSL license	Yes	No
PHP License	Yes¹	Yes
Q Public License	Yes¹	Yes
Sun Industry Standards Source License	Yes¹	Yes
Sun Public License	Yes¹	Yes
Sybase Open Watcom Public License	?	Yes
W3C Software Notice and License	Yes	Yes
XFree86 1.1 License	No	No
zlib/libpng license	Yes	Yes
Zope Public License version 1.0	Yes¹	?
Zope Public License version 2.0	Yes	Yes

[edit] Notes

Note 1: The FSF considers this licence to be free, but incompatible with its GNU General Public Licence.
Note 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 in question. The FSF encourages you to use the Clarified Artistic License instead.[1]