Open source license
<legal> Any document that attempts to specify
open source usage and distribution of software.
These licenses are usually drafted by experts and are likely to be more legally sound than one a programmer could write.
However, loopholes do exist.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of open source licenses:
1.
Public Domain - No license.
2.
BSD License - An early open source license
3.
General Public License (GPL) - The
copyleft license of the
Free Software Foundation.
Used for
GNU software and much of
Linux.
4. Artistic License (http://www.my-opensource.org/Artistic.txt) Less restrictive than the GPL, permitted by
Perl in addition to the GPL.
5. Mozilla Public Licenses (http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/). (MPL, MozPL) and Netscape Public License (NPL).
["Open Sources", pub. O'Reilly, full text (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/perens.html)].