The Open Source Initiative lists 9 different licenses in their list of \"License

Question

The Open Source Initiative lists 9 different licenses in their list of "License that are popular and widely used or with strong communities".

I want to license my project as open-source. Unfortunately, I do not speak legalese. Is there some chart I could consult that will help me make the right choice, or at least point me in the right direction? For example a table summarizing the differences between the licenses, or perhaps a flow-graph using my requirements to guide me into the correct license for me?

I also intend to meet a lawyer, but any information to start with will help.

Explanation / Answer

Jeff Atwood has done a pretty good job explaining the differences among the multitude of Open Source software licenses in plain English here:

codinghorror.com/blog/2007/04/pick-a-license-any-license.html

The most important consideration affecting your decision will be your redistribution terms. That is, will you allow your code to be used in commercial applications and if so, will you require such applications to open-source their own code?

This is where the GPL is notable: If you license your code under the GPL, anyone using your code must also license their code under the GPL. Since the GPL requires that all of your code be open-source, this pretty much excludes its use in companies that wish to keep their code proprietary.

Note that the GPL does allow you to use GPL'd code for in-house business applications, so long as you do not redistribute those applications to a third party.

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