O'Reilly has published a book that aims to help software developers and other interested readers make sense of the many open source software licenses in circulation today. Understanding Open Source & Free Software Licensing offers annotated copies of popular licenses, along with comparison… and analysis.

(Click for larger view of book cover)

According to O'Reilly, the book discusses copyright, patent, and warranty issues, and explores how to choose among the licenses. It also discusses the implications of working on projects for which someone else has already chosen the license, and the liabilities created by violating license terms.

The book provides annotated copies of a number of popular open source licenses, including

• The MITBSD, Apache, and Academic Free Licenses
• The GNU General Public License (GPL) and Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
• The Mozilla Public License (MPL)
• The Artistic License, Perl License, and Q License
• Creative Commons 1.0 and 2.0 Licenses
• Sun Community Source License and Commercial Use Supplement

It offers comparisons between licenses and discussions of how licenses interoperate, answering questions such as:

• What rights am I giving up?
• How will my use of OS/FS licensing affect future users or future developers?
• Does a particular use of this software — such as combining it with proprietary software — leave me vulnerable to lawsuits?

Author Andrew M. St. Laurent says the book is written with lay readers in mind, and includes very little legal jargon. It also avoids abstract discussions, esoteric doctrine, and proposed laws. Instead, St. Laurent says, the book discusses specific licenses in practical terms. “Someone can look at the Apache license and get a good understanding in just a few minutes without having to read the entire book or skip around to different sections,” he said.

St. Laurent adds, “Those interested in open source and free software licensing will be able to make intelligent, informed choices about how they want to license new programs or contribute to ongoing open source and free software projects.”

The 208-page book is available now direct from O'Reilly for $24.95 US. A sample chapter covering the MIT, BSD, Apache, and Academic Free Licenses is also available, and the book's table of contents, author bio, and index are available online as well.

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.