2019-10-18

Why are these 3 open source licenses best?

I've already said that these 3 licenses are best for open source nowadays for me:
  1. Apache License 2.0 --- Apache-2.0 @ SPDX, ChooseALicense
  2. Mozilla Public License 2.0 --- MPL-2.0 @ SPDX, ChooseALicense
  3. GNU General Public License 3.0 or later --- GPL @ SPDX, ChooseALicense
But WHY??

The open source community has basically settled on 4 styles of sharing, and with it 4 genres of open source licenses.  The list above is my pick of what I think is best in each of the first 3 genres.  Let's talk about each one in turn:

1. Software developers are free to do whatever they want with my code in building their software.

These licenses are about the freedom of the developers of the software.

Look for MIT, BSD, Apache licenses, etc.

But I think Apache License 2.0 is the best because

2. Users are free to do whatever they want with my code and any modifications to my code in the software they received, even if they can't with the software's other proprietary code.

These licenses are all about the freedom of the end users who have the software, in a piecemeal fashion.

Look for MPL, EPL, LGPL licenses, etc.

But I think MPL 2.0 is best because
  • compared to MPL and EPL, the LGPL basically makes the distinction that static linking of code equals modifications to that code, but dynamic linking is not.  That just seems like a needless distinction for a license to make, and MPL and EPL doesn't make that distinction.  And I like static linking.
  • EPL 2.0 is basically a very new update to EPL 1.0 that makes the EPL even more complicated than it already was.  The main purpose was to (1) change the boundary of what counts as "my code" from a module based distinction to a file based distinction, which is what the community has standardized on, (2) make it more internationally usable, and (3) add in GPL compatibility as an opt-in.

    Unfortunately, GPL compatibility is opt-in and not default making it even more complicated when mixing EPL 2.0 with/without GPL secondary license, and EPL 1.0 code which was never GPL compatible.

    So if your community has settled on EPL (like many in Java or Clojure), then maybe sticking with what the community is using is easiest.  Otherwise, it's hard to make an informed use of the EPL as an individual, unless you've got lawyers on retainer... which is maybe why the EPL is very well regarded by businesses?
  • It is compatible with Apache 2.0.
MPL 2.0 on the other hand has GPL compatibility by default, unless opted-out of.  It's much older so it's better known and understood, still very well regarded, and used by large projects like Mozilla for Firefox, Adobe for Flex, LibreOffice, etc.  And it's relatively short and easy to understand, so MPL 2.0 it is! 


3. Users are free to do whatever they want with all of the code in the software they got from the software developers.

These licenses are all about the freedom of the end users who have the software, not about the developers'.

Look for GPL.

This is the classic "viral copyleft" thing, although talking about strong/viral copyleft is kind of more confusing than helpful (see Weak or Strong is Wrong) because, philosophical discussions aside, it's really just about what kind of code sharing you want to take place with your code you authored.

Having said that, if you incorporate MPL 2.0 or Apache 2.0 code into a GPL code base, the whole code base has to be distributed as GPL moving forward.


4. Users are free to do whatever they want with all of the code in the software they use from the software developers.

These licenses are all about the freedom of the end users using the software over a network.

Look for AGPL, SSPL, etc.

GPL had a SaaS loophole / ASP loophole:  what happens if the end users never got the software, because they only used it running in the "cloud" (i.e. on computers they don't own)?

AGPL is supposed to close that loophole so that if an organization modifies AGPL software, any end user using that AGPL software in the cloud must be able to do anything they want with its' code.

More recently, AGPL was found to have a no-modification loophole: what happens if an organization just uses and doesn't modify AGPL software?  The AGPL doesn't compel code sharing in that case!

So companies could containerize AGPL software, build an API around it to use it internally, etc., and as long as they never modify the actual AGPL software, then they could use without ever sharing any code.

Some patched that loophole with the Commons Clause.  MongoDB took a different path by creating the SSPL.

I don't know enough about this genre of sharing to suggest any license as best.  Reading SSPL Was Not Commons Clause, it's clear this is still cutting edge licensing legal stuff.  If you're looking for a license for this genre of sharing for any serious work, you'd probably have your own lawyers anyway.

And I'm definitely not a lawyer, so let's just agree to take this as entertainment.  :)

2019-10-12

These 3 licenses are best for Open Source


Choosing an open source license is confusing.  There's so many!  But I've narrowed it down to the 3 best ones for me nowadays.

I'm not a lawyer, so take this as entertainment.  :)
  1. Apache License 2.0 --- Apache-2.0 @ SPDX, ChooseALicense
  2. Mozilla Public License 2.0 --- MPL-2.0 @ SPDX, ChooseALicense
  3. GNU General Public License 3.0 or later --- GPL @ SPDX, ChooseALicense
Which you use depends on what kind of sharing you want to do.

Use Apache 2.0 license if:
    1. you want anyone to be able to use your code however they want
    2. including building bigger projects based on your code with the bigger work licensed however they want (including possibly "all rights reserved" proprietary licensing), 
    3. without expecting them to share anything back in return,
    4. without expecting them to acknowledge they used your code,
    5. and without expecting them to share your code that they used.
Use MPL 2.0 if:
    1. you want anyone to be able to use your code however they want,
    2. including building bigger projects based on your code with the bigger work licensed however they want (including possibly "all rights reserved" proprietary licensing),
    3. but you expect that any changes they make to your files are shared back in return,
    4. you expect that they will acknowledge they used your code,
    5. and you expect they'll make available your code that they used.
Another great thing about MPL 2.0 and Apache 2.0 is that they are compatible with each other!
Use GPL if:
    1. you want anyone to be able to use your code,
    2. including building bigger projects based on your code but with the bigger work also GPL licensed,
    3. and any changes they make to your code, as well as any code added to your code even if in other files or modules, are all shared back in return,
    4. you expect that they'll acknowledge they used your code,
    5. and you expect they'll make available your code they used, and also any code they add, even if they added them in other files or modules.
Notice the big distinguishing point is in how much you want users of your code to share back changes or additions.  From zero sharing required (Apache 2), to sharing changes or additions to your files (MPL 2), to sharing all changes or additions whether they be in your files or in other files linked (dynamically or statically) to your files (GPL).

If you want help navigating to which license to use, this License Selector I found the best (except it's missing EPL-2.0).  While the Choose a License site from GitHub has the slickest UI, they make some questionable suggestions from my point of view, like highly suggesting the MIT (a.k.a Expat*) License instead of the Apache license.

One reasonable advice from ChooseALicense though is to choose the license common in the community you want to share in, but that's really only true if there is an equivalent license to what you'd otherwise want to use.

For example, if you want to use the MPL-2.0, but you're wanting to share in the Clojure community, then you're probably better off using the EPL-2.0 (Eclipse Public License) instead, despite the EPL 2 being very likely not as "good" as the MPL 2 by some metrics.  But EPL is only even an option as it's basically equivalent to the MPL as far as I could tell.

If for some reason you really wanted to GPL license your Clojure code, then EPL isn't going to cut it anyway because they're not at all equivalent.
    * this is different from the MIT / X Consortium License.