Open Source Licenses

First some general points. These points either directly relate to the following table or are necessary to understand the whole Open Source philosophy. So, in no particular order:

    When a program is linked with a library, whether statically or using a shared library, the combination of the two is legally speaking a combined work, a derivative of the original library.

    The “Proprietary Software linking” refers to linking or closed sourced applications/libraries with applications/libraries licensed under one of the following Open Source licenses.

    By “the Work” in the “Distribution of 'the Work''” I mean a combination of a software with the library or application licensed under one of the following licenses

    “Redistributing of the code with changes” refers to the act of redistributing a modified app/library based on the app/library licensed under the given license

License	Proprietary Software linking	Distribution of “the Work”	Redistributing of the code with changes	Compatible with GNU GPL
GPL	Not allowed (since the linked software is considered a whole)	Not allowed with software whose license is not GNU GPL compatible.	Only if the derivative is GNU GPL.	Yes
LGPL	Allowed (since the software that links to the library is not considered a derivative work)	Allowed with some restrictions: You have to provide source code of the distributed LGPL library with (if any) modifications, changes to the LGPL library should be allowed to third parties and if BC your app/lib should still work with the modified LGPL lib/app.	Only if the derivative is GNU LGPL or GNU GPL.	Yes
Apple Public	Allowed (the requirements of Apple License apply only to the Covered Code)	Allowed.	Only under Apple Public license.	No
Apache Public	Allowed.	Allowed.	Allowed (as long as the name “Apache” isn't used in the name of the derivative work)	No
Artistic 2.0	Allowed.	Allowed (as long as C or perl subroutines supplied by you and linked into the Covered Code are not considered a part of the Covered Code)	Allowed if one of the following is true: a) modifications are freely available, b) one uses the modified package only within corporation or organization, c) rename any non-standard executables, d) make other distribution arrangements with the Copyright Holder And the name of the Copyright Holder may not be used to promote derived products without his/hes written permission.	Yes [1]
BSD	Allowed.	Allowed.	Allowed.	Only the modified BSD license is compatible with GPL. The original BSD license is not compatible because it includes a weird advertising clause. [2]

(more...)

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