Fix incorrect license recommendation. Closes #468 (#746)

See https://spdx.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause-Clear.html and
https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/7559/patent-rights-bsd-3-clause-clear-vs-bsd-3-clause.

Co-authored-by: David Anselmi <danselmi@intecrowd.com>
Reviewed-on: https://codeberg.org/Codeberg/Documentation/pulls/746
Reviewed-by: Gusted <gusted@noreply.codeberg.org>
This commit is contained in:
Dave Anselmi 2026-07-09 22:48:06 +02:00 committed by Gusted
parent c5873b5010
commit 7e937e2088

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@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ project to remain small (e.g. less than 300 lines)?
- Yes --> we recommend using the **LGPL-3.0-or-later** license
- Yes --> Do you want to be able to sue users of your code for [patent infringement](#patent-usage) implemented in the code?
- No --> We recommend using the **Apache-2.0** license
- Yes --> We recommend using the **MIT** license
- Yes --> We recommend using the **BSD 3-Clause Clear** license
## Correctly applying a license
@ -74,8 +74,9 @@ One of the major distinctions between licenses is between:
the code include contractual law, but that is rarely used for software licenses.
2. Licenses which permit to close the source, i.e. temporarily-open licenses.
These licenses are usually known as permissive licenses. The MIT license or the Apache license belong to this category.
The term "permissive" often causes confusion, because it sounds fair and good to inexperienced people.
These licenses are usually known as permissive licenses. The MIT license, the BSD license, or the Apache license belong to
this category.
The term "permissive" often causes confusion, because it sounds fair and good to unexperienced people.
People who contribute to the development of a program released with a permissive license must be aware that the
program could become proprietary at any time. For example, when a company hires the original team of developers.
@ -100,17 +101,11 @@ limited versions (crippleware), advertising-supported software (e.g. antivirus),
### Patent usage
Some permissive/temporarily-open licenses like the MIT license do not contain a patent provision granting the users the
right to use their patents.
For example, the code might be licensed under the MIT license, but implements an algorithm which is protected by a patent.
In this case, the license might allow to copy, modify and distribute the code but at the same time does not guarantee
the right to use the patented algorithm.
It is a common argument in favour of the MIT license to claim that no public lawsuit has ever been conducted yet.
Still, the threat to be sued remains, and it can be used to exert pressure. Some, if not most, license disputes moreover
are settled even [before reaching the court](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/enforcing-gpl.en.html) and could therefore
leave no trace.
Even Google [avoided the use of the MIT license when developing Android](https://source.android.com/setup/start/licenses),
presumably because of the missing patent provision.
Some permissive/temporarily-open licenses like the Apache-2.0 license contain a patent provision explicitly granting the
users the right to use their patents. Some, like the BSD 3-Clause Clear license explicitly do not grant the right to use
their patents. And some, like the MIT license, do not mention patents, making it arguable that they [implicitly grant](https://opensource.com/article/18/3/patent-grant-mit-license)
patent rights, or that they [do not](https://web.archive.org/web/20190312190935/http://stlr.org/2018/10/15/the-truth-about-oss-frand-by-all-indications-compatible-models-in-standards-settings/).
We recommend that you use a license with a clear statement so your users know your specific intent.
For further information on "patents and free software", head over to [this Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patents_and_free_software).