Software License

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Software license is a legally binding agreement that specify the terms of use for an application and it defines the rights of the of the software producer and of the end user as well.

A software license is a legal instrument (usually by way of contract law, with or without printed material) governing the use or redistribution of software.   
Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_license

With the software license in contrast to proprietary software licenses, ownership of the particular copy of the software will go to the end user. It’ll not remaining with the publisher of the software. Then by default end user afforded all rights granted by copyright law to the copy owner. :)
Please note the Copy owner is not the same as copyright owner. When ownership in a software copy is transferred ownership of the copyright still remains with the publisher.


There are several types of the software licenses. They are

  1. Proprietary license
  2. GNU General Public License
  3. End User License Agreement(EULA)
  4. Workstation licenses
  5. Concurrent use license
  6. Site licenses
  7. Perpetual licenses
  8. Non - perpetual license
  9. License with maintenance


Open Source Licenses

Open source softwares are allow to be freely used, modified and shared. Before publish the software publisher need to go through a process called Open Source Initiative’s license. Finally the software will be approved by the Open Source Initiative(OSI).

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In open source software license they are fall under two categories. 

Copyleft licences aim on preserve the freedom and openness of the software itself. To give the freedom to the users of the software permissive licences may be helpful. An example of a copyleft Free Software license is the GNU General Public License (GPL).
  • This license is aimed at giving the end-user significant permission, such as permission to redistribute, reverse engineer, or otherwise modify the software.
  • These permissions are not entirely free of obligations for the end-user, however. The end-user must comply with certain terms. if the end-user wishes to exercise these extra permissions granted by the GPL.
  • Any modifications made and redistributed by the end-user must include the source code for these, and the end user is not allowed to re-assert the removed copyright restrictions back over their derivative work.

Permissive free software licenses are essentially grant the end-user permission to do anything they wish with the source code in question, including the right to take the code and use it as part of closed-source software or software released under a Proprietary software license. BSD license and the MIT license are the examples for the Permissive free software licenses. :)

Popular Licenses


The following OSI-approved licenses are popular, widely used, or have strong communities (as defined in the 2006 Proliferation Report):

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