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GitHub wants to help developers choose an open source license for their source code.
If you already know what you're doing and have a license you prefer to use, that's great! We're not here to change your mind. But if you are bewildered by the large number of open source license choices, maybe we can help.
Not comprehensive
This site is not a comprehensive directory of open source licenses. We think there are too many options, which adds to the confusion. On the homepage, we break it down into just three licenses. The vast majority of projects will likely be fine choosing from one of these three. Just in case you have specific needs not covered by those three, we also highlight a few other licenses to consider, and have a page about licenses for non-software projects.
See our appendix for a table of all of the licenses cataloged in the choosealicense.com repository and the links below for even more licenses that you do not need to learn about when choosing a license for your project.
Additional resources
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- Open Source Initiative's list of licenses approved as conforming to the Open Source Definition
- Free Software Foundation's comments on various licenses
- Linux Foundation's SPDX License List
- Comparison of free and open-source software licenses on English Wikipedia
- License differentiator (source) from OSS Watch
- Free/Libre/Open Source license selection wizard by John Cowan
Help us improve it
Choosealicense.com isn't just about open source, the site itself is open source as well. See something you think could be done better? Feel free to fork the project on GitHub and submit a pull request. We'd welcome your improvements.
Disclaimer
We are not lawyers. Well, most of us anyway. It is not the goal of this site to provide legal advice. The goal of this site is to provide a starting point to help you make an informed choice by providing information on popular open source licenses. If you have any questions regarding the right license for your code or any other legal issues relating to it, it's up to you to do further research or consult with a professional.