From b8a41ac61fcbda3e5b1a00d9066c4060a890f299 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Clint Howarth Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2012 23:51:59 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] build out header matter, clean up formatting --- docs/writing/license.rst | 64 +++++++++++++++++------------------------------- 1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 42 deletions(-) diff --git a/docs/writing/license.rst b/docs/writing/license.rst index 3b4f479..9e759ba 100644 --- a/docs/writing/license.rst +++ b/docs/writing/license.rst @@ -1,16 +1,21 @@ Choosing a License ================== -Open source. +Your source publication *needs* a license. In the US, if no license is +specified, users have no legal right to download, modify, or +distribute. Furthermore, people can't contribute to your code unless +you tell them what rules to play by. It's complicated, so here are +some pointers: -There are plenty of `open source licenses `_ -available to choose from. +Open source. There are plenty of `open source licenses +`_ available to choose +from. In general, these licenses tend to fall into one of two categories: 1. licenses that focus more on the user's freedom to do with the software as they please (these are the more-permissive open - source licenses such as the MIT, BSD, & Apache), and + source licenses such as the MIT, BSD, & Apache). 2. licenses that focus more on making sure that the code itself — including any changes made to it and distributed along with it — @@ -22,51 +27,26 @@ someone to add code to the software and distribute it without also including the source code for their changes. To help you choose one for your project, there's a `license chooser `_, -use it. +**use it**. +**More-Permissive** -More-Permissive -::::::::::::::: +- PSFL (Python Software Foundation License) -- for contributing to python itself +- MIT / BSD / ISC -PSFL ----- + + MIT (X11) + + New BSD + + ISC +- Apache -MIT / BSD / ISC ---------------- +**Less-Permissive:** +- LGPL +- GPL -MIT (X11) -````````` + + GPLv2 + + GPLv3 -New BSD -``````` - -ISC -``` - -Apache ------- - - -Less-Permissive -::::::::::::::: - - -LGPL ----- - - - -GPL ---- - - -GPLv2 -````` - - -GPLv3 -````` -- 1.8.0.2