License Categories
Content migrated
This page has been moved to https://github.com/finos/community/blob/master/governance/Software-Projects/License-categories.md
Category A
Public Domain dedications
The concept of "public domain" is a little complicated, as not every jurisdiction recognises the concept, so it's good to raise the issue to help@finos.org when it shows up. As general guidance, if the author of the library is American, the component is not a major one, and there is no public trace of issues related to the licensing of this component, there should not be problems bundling it in a FINOS (project) release.
Code licensed under the following licenses (and public domain dedications) may be included in Foundation contributions. If the license requires attribution or other notices, these should be included in the project's NOTICE file.
Common Category A Licenses
| License | SPDX id |
|---|---|
| Apache License v. 1.1 | Apache-1.1 |
Apache-2.0 | |
| BSD Zero Clause | 0BSD |
| BSD 2-clause | BSD-2-Clause |
| BSD 3-clause | BSD-3-Clause |
| Eclipse Distribution License v. 1.0 |
Please see this page for details regarding the use of "BSD-3-Clause" as the SPDX identifier of this license. |
| ISC | ISC |
| Microsoft Public License (MsPL) | MS-PL |
| MIT | MIT |
| PHP License v. 3.01 | PHP-3.01 |
| PostgreSQL License | PostgreSQL |
| Python Software Foundation License v. 2.0 | Python-2.0 |
| Unlicense | Unlicense |
| X11 | X11 |
| zlib | Zlib |
| zlib/libpng | zlib-acknowledgement |
Other Category A Licenses
Category B
Third-party code licensed under the following licenses may be included in Foundation projects. However, because these licenses contain certain restrictions on downstream users (such as a reciprocal licensing requirement), a notice must be included in the project's CONTRIBUTING file if the third-party code appears directly in the project's repository. This is to ensure that contributors are aware when their modifications may be subject to restrictions other than those in the Apache License.
| License | SPDX id |
|---|---|
| CC0-1.0 ("no material conditions at all" licenses, so they can typically be incorporated into projects under any other common open source license. But explicitly excludes a patent license, not suitable for outbound licenses) | CC0-1.0 |
| Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) v. 1.0 | CDDL-1.0 |
CDDL-1.1 | |
CPL-1.0 | |
| Eclipse Public License (EPL) v. 1.0 | EPL-1.0 |
| Erlang Public License v. 1.1 | ErlPL-1.1 |
| IBM Public License (IPL) v. 1.0 | IPL-1.0 |
| IPA Font License Agreement v. 1.0 | IPA |
| Mozilla Public License (MPL) v. 1.0 | MPL-1.0 |
| MPL v. 1.1 | MPL-1.1 |
| MPL v. 2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
Includes the older version when GPLv2 was a listed alternative Ruby 1.9.2 license. | Ruby |
| SIL Open Font License v. 1.1 | OFL-1.1 |
| Sun Public License (SPL) v. 1.0 | SPL-1.0 |
| Ubuntu Font License Version v. 1.0 | [N/A] |
Only for unarchiving. | [N/A] |
Category X
Category X dependencies are excluded either because their licenses would not permit the Foundation project to be licensed under the Apache License, or because they contain other problematic terms. Category X licenses include any proprietary license or EULA, as well as many free and open source software licenses with reciprocal licensing requirements and other restrictions.
Dependencies that are licensed with a Category X license cannot be used in a Foundation project.