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