Licensing Glossary

Browse 61 licensing terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

61 Licensing Terms

Affero GPL
A copyleft free software license, commonly referring to the GNU Affero General Public License, that extends source-sharing obligations to software provided...
AGPL
The GNU Affero General Public License, a copyleft license that extends source-sharing obligations to software used over a network.
Apache Software License
A permissive open source license, most commonly Apache License 2.0, that allows broad use, modification, and redistribution while including explicit patent...
Artistic License
A family of software licenses originally associated with Perl, designed to allow modification and redistribution with conditions intended to preserve...
Attribution License
A license that requires downstream users to give credit to the original creator when redistributing or reusing the work. In software and open content contexts,...
Bait and Switch
In tech culture, a strategy where a company attracts users or developers with a generous offering (free tier, open-source license, open API) then changes the...
BSD License
A family of permissive open source licenses derived from the Berkeley Software Distribution tradition, allowing broad reuse with relatively few obligations...
Business Source License
A source-available license that restricts some commercial use for a period before eventually converting to a more permissive license.
Commercial Software
Software sold or licensed commercially rather than offered only as a hobby project, internal tool, or purely free public artifact. In culture discussions the...
Commons Clause
A license add-on used to restrict commercial sale or monetization of software, often criticized as incompatible with open-source norms.
Contributor License Agreement
A legal agreement contributors sign to grant a project rights to use, relicense, or defend their code contributions.
Creative Commons
A family of licenses designed mainly for creative works such as writing, images, audio, and educational materials, allowing varying degrees of sharing and...
Creative Commons Culture
A culture of sharing work under flexible licenses that allow reuse under defined conditions, encouraging remixing, access, and collaborative creation. The...
Digital Rights Management
Technical controls used to restrict how digital media or software can be accessed, copied, or used after distribution. DRM is intended to enforce licensing...
DRM
Short for digital rights management, the technical controls used to limit copying, playback, or redistribution of digital content according to licensing rules....
Dual Licensing
A licensing model in which the same software is offered under two different licenses, often one open source and one commercial, so users can choose based on...
Elastic License
A source-available license used by Elastic that permits viewing and some use of the code while restricting certain hosted-service or competitive use cases.
Ethical Source
A movement advocating licenses that restrict harmful uses of software, such as abuse, surveillance, or human-rights violations, even if those restrictions make...
Fair Source
A licensing idea and branding approach for software that is source-available and broadly usable but not necessarily open source under traditional definitions....
FLOSS
An abbreviation for Free/Libre and Open Source Software, used to include both the free software and open source traditions in a single phrase. It often appears...
Free as in Beer
A phrase used to clarify that 'free' refers to price rather than freedom, as in software that costs nothing but may still restrict modification or...
Free as in Speech
A phrase used to clarify that 'free' refers to user freedoms such as running, studying, modifying, and sharing software, rather than simply price. It is...
Free Culture
A movement advocating open sharing, remixing, and reuse of creative and cultural works under permissive or commons-oriented licensing. It extends values...
Free Software
Software distributed in a way that preserves users’ freedom to run, study, modify, and share it. The phrase refers to liberty rather than price and is central...
FSF
Short for the Free Software Foundation, the organization founded to promote software freedom and support the GNU movement.
GNU General Public License
A family of strong copyleft licenses, commonly called the GPL, requiring that distributed derivative works also provide source code under the same license...
GPL Compliance
The practice of meeting the obligations of GPL-licensed software, such as providing corresponding source code, preserving notices, and honoring redistribution...
GPL v3
Version 3 of the GNU General Public License, which updated GPL terms to address issues such as patent retaliation, anti-circumvention, and device lockdown...
ISC License
A short permissive software license similar in spirit to simplified BSD and MIT-style licenses, allowing broad reuse with minimal obligations. It is valued by...
LGPL
The GNU Lesser General Public License, a copyleft license designed mainly for libraries so they can be linked by proprietary software under certain conditions...
Liberating Code
A phrase used to describe making software available under terms that give others meaningful freedom to inspect, reuse, modify, and share it. It carries a...
License Audit
A review of project dependencies, source files, and distributions to verify which licenses apply and whether obligations are being met. In open-source culture,...
License Badge
A small badge, often shown in a README, that indicates the license used by a project. In open-source culture, license badges are quick trust signals that help...
License Checker
A tool used to inspect dependencies or source artifacts and report their licenses, compatibility, or compliance risks. In engineering practice, license...
License Compatibility
The question of whether software under different licenses can be combined, linked, redistributed, or embedded together without violating any of their terms. It...
License File
A file in a repository or distribution that states the software license terms under which the project is offered. In open-source culture, the presence and...
License Header
A notice placed at the top of a source file indicating copyright ownership and the terms under which the file is licensed. License headers are used to preserve...
License Template
A reusable template for writing or selecting a project's license text consistently. In practical culture, license templates help teams avoid accidental...
Model License
The legal terms governing how a model can be used, modified, distributed, or commercialized. Model licenses matter because they can restrict deployment...
Mozilla Public License
A weak copyleft license, commonly abbreviated MPL, that requires modified files to remain under the MPL while allowing larger combined works to include code...
Open Data
Data made available for use, reuse, and redistribution under terms that support broad access, often with minimal restrictions such as attribution. Open data is...
Open Source
Open Source refers to software whose source code is publicly available, allowing anyone to view, modify, distribute, and use it, typically under a license that...
Open Source Definition
The formal set of criteria maintained by the Open Source Initiative that defines what qualifies as an open source license, including requirements around...
Open Source Hardware
Hardware projects whose design artifacts are openly published so others can inspect, modify, manufacture, or improve them, often under licenses adapted for...
Open Source Initiative
The nonprofit organization that stewards the Open Source Definition and approves licenses as open source under that framework. The OSI plays a central role in...
Open Source License
A software license that grants users rights to inspect, use, modify, and redistribute source code under defined conditions. In practice, the exact license...
Open Weight
An AI model whose trained weights are publicly released, allowing anyone to run, fine-tune, or build upon it. Distinct from truly 'open source' because the...
Open Weights
Model parameters released for others to download and run, even when the full training data or code may not be open.
OSD
Short for the Open Source Definition, the criteria used to determine whether a software license qualifies as open source. In licensing culture, OSD compliance...
OSI Approved
Describing a software license that has been approved by the Open Source Initiative as meeting the Open Source Definition. The label matters because many...
Permissive License
An open source license that allows broad reuse, modification, and redistribution with relatively few obligations, typically requiring attribution and notices...
Project License
The license under which a project is released and distributed. In open-source culture, the project license shapes who can use the work, how it can be modified,...
Public Domain
The legal status of a work that is not protected by copyright, allowing anyone to use, modify, and redistribute it without needing permission. In software,...
Redis Fork
A derivative project created from the Redis codebase, usually in response to governance, licensing, or strategic disagreement.
Repository License
The software license declared for a repository, usually through a license file and related metadata. In open-source practice, the repository license determines...
Server Side Public License
A license designed to require service providers to release the code for the broader service stack if they offer the licensed software as a service.
Source Available
Describing software whose source code can be viewed and often modified, but whose license imposes restrictions that mean it does not qualify as open source...
Source Code License
The license governing how source code may be used, modified, and redistributed. In legal and engineering practice, the source code license determines what...
Training Data Licensing
The legal and contractual framework governing whether data can be used to train or fine-tune AI models.
Unlicense
A permissive software license intended to dedicate code to the public domain while also providing fallback license terms where pure public-domain dedication...
WTFPL
Short for the Do What The F*ck You Want To Public License, an intentionally irreverent extremely permissive license that aims to impose almost no restrictions....

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