Understanding license compliance in open source projects
Tags: opensource
Published: 2024-03-24 20:13:45

As an open source contributor, aspiring contributor or maintainer, it is very important to take licences very seriously as they determine how you can interact with any open source project. Open source licences are basically legal agreements which define how open source software should be read, ran, revised and redistributed. For a start, lets talk about the types of opensource licences.

## Permissive vs Copyleft licenses
Free and opensource licences can be divided into two main categories - **permissive** and **copyleft**.

- **Permissive licenses:** Permissive licenses allow any one to use, modify and redistribute software without any restrictions. It basically means derivatives of such software under this license could be made propriety or closed-source irrespective of the fact that their parent project is opensource. Some examples of such licenses are the MIT, Apache licences.

- **Copyleft licenses:** Copyleft licenses allow you to use,modify and redistribute software however, the software has the changes are shared other same license. This measns the software and its derivatives must remain free and open for everyone to use. Some examples include the GNU GPL licences.You can see that copyleft licenses protect the freedom of downstream users.

You now realize that before starting an open source project or interact with one, it is important to check what license it is under. 

## Open source license compliance
They say open source software is free but is it really? Are all open source software really free? The "free" part only means you have the freedom to use, modify, and redistribute it. However, the license really determines how you actually utilize these freedoms. This is why we have to understand open source license compliance. You might be wondering what the point might be since there's no active company enforcing it. 

First of all, you really want to take license compliance seriously because you wouldn't want to have to deal with any lawsuits or penalties. Remember these licenses are legal contracts which give authorization and permission on how opensource software should be used, modified and distributed. Breaching the terms of this contract could come with some consequences which are not worth it. Compliance goes a very long way to mitigate any legal risks that could pose a threat to organizations. In addition, these licenses protect the intellectual property rights of both the original authors and subsequent contributors and compliance comes in to enforce the intentions of how the original authors intend for their software to be used.It ensures downstream projects abide by the rules of the original authors enforcing their rights. Further more, compliance helps build trust and transparency within a community as everyone is on the same page as per how the software is supposed to be used, modified or distributed. Failure to comply to the licenses might actually break the trust, lead to disputes, and possibly affect the community behind the software negatively.

To conclude, open source license compliance is essential for ensuring legal, ethical, and practical adherence to the terms of open source licenses. It helps protect intellectual property rights, preserve community trust, mitigate legal risks, and promote the principles of openness and collaboration in software development.