开源许可证(Open Source Licenses)是一种允许用户查看、修改、共享和分发代码的法律协议。它们规定了代码在不同场景下的使用权限和责任。开源许可证的种类很多,不同的许可证在使用条件上有所不同。下面是一些常见的开源许可证及其特点:
1. MIT许可证 (MIT License)
- 概述:MIT许可证是最宽松的开源许可证之一,它允许用户做几乎任何事情(复制、修改、分发、甚至商业化),只要满足一个条件:在代码的所有副本中都包含原始的版权声明和许可证。
- 优点:简单、宽松,适用于大部分项目,尤其是希望最大限度地让别人使用代码的项目。
- 缺点:没有要求衍生作品开放源代码,因此可能会被闭源项目使用。
- 常见项目:Ruby on Rails、Node.js等。
示例:
MIT LicenseCopyright (c) 2023 [Your Name]Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following condition:The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
2. GNU 通用公共许可证 (GPL - General Public License)
- 概述:GPL是一种“传染性”较强的许可证。它要求任何基于GPL许可证的代码修改或衍生作品都必须以相同的GPL许可证发布,并且公开源代码。如果你修改了GPL代码并分发它,你必须提供原始代码的访问方式。
- 优点:确保源代码和衍生作品保持开源,保护社区的利益。
- 缺点:较为严格的“传染性”要求,可能不适合那些希望将开源代码用于闭源项目的开发者。
- 版本:
- GPLv2:较为普遍,适用于Linux等项目。
- GPLv3:更严格,增加了对专利的保护,并规定了反对“硬件锁定”的条款。
示例:
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
3. Apache许可证 2.0 (Apache License 2.0)
- 概述:Apache 2.0许可证允许修改、分发代码,并且可以将代码用于商业项目。它与MIT许可证类似,但是它还提供了专利授权。换句话说,Apache许可证确保你可以自由使用代码,并且开发者不得通过专利权来限制你使用代码。
- 优点:对专利的保护,允许将代码用于闭源项目,适合企业使用。
- 缺点:相比MIT许可证,略显复杂,要求在发布时提供对修改的说明。
- 常见项目:Apache HTTP Server、Hadoop、Kubernetes等。
示例:
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License athttp://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
4. BSD许可证
- 概述:BSD许可证有多种版本(如2-clause、3-clause)。它们与MIT许可证类似,但对于商标使用有更多的约束(特别是3-clause版本)。BSD许可证允许代码用于商业目的,并且不会要求衍生作品开源。
- 优点:极为宽松,不要求开源衍生代码,适合那些希望广泛使用代码的开发者。
- 缺点:与MIT类似,可能会导致开源代码被闭源使用。
- 常见项目:FreeBSD、OpenBSD、NetBSD等。
示例(3-clause):
Copyright (c) [year], [organization name]
All rights reserved.Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, thislist of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, thislist of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation or othermaterials provided with the distribution.
3. Neither the name of the [organization] nor the names of its contributors maybe used to endorse or promote products derived from this software withoutspecific prior written permission.THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
5. Creative Commons许可证 (CC)
- 概述:虽然Creative Commons(CC)许可证通常用于艺术作品,但也有些人将其应用于软件。它允许创作者指定如何分享和使用作品。常见的CC许可证有“CC BY”、“CC BY-SA”、“CC BY-ND”等。
- 优点:灵活,可以适应不同需求。
- 缺点:通常不适用于软件,尤其是需要代码修改和衍生的情况。
6. LGPL(Lesser GPL)
- 概述:LGPL是GPL的一种变体,它对代码的使用更为宽松。LGPL允许将开源库与私有代码链接,但修改LGPL代码本身时仍需开源。
- 优点:适用于商业产品,可以将LGPL库与闭源软件一起使用。
- 缺点:修改LGPL代码本身仍然需要开源。