(Photo FLY:D on Unsplash) Handle with care? or not? The License states how a software should be handled, and must be known by all users.
Errr.. Licence or License?
Both spelling exists, see here for more. We will stick to the U.S.“License” because it is simpler, period.
Open Source licenses
An open source license allows you to showcase the technical skills of your team, and facilitates the adhesion and contribution of your partners to your work. Whatever happen, you will always have access to your code.
It is also a clear factor of attraction when recruiting people, because they can use and talk about what they have done after leaving.
Most common licenses
The are of course the well opensource licences. We will skip here the ones involving a copyleft, in other crude words the “contaminant ones”. At Cerfacs we often use these two OSI approved licenses:
- The MIT is the well known and permissive one of Massachusetts University of Technology.
- The FeeeBSD is well known and permissive, without the Berkley Univ. mention and with a disclaimer on opinions and conclusions of the so
- The LGPL comes from the GNU initiative
There are French based Open-source license worth mentioning, the CECILL coming in two versions:
- CECILL-B is compatible with BSD licenses, with an explicit invitation to cite the work.
- CECILL-C is slightly more restrictive: any evolution of the initial CECILL-C code must stay under CECILL-C license (Copyleft)
The differences are explicitly stated in the Cecill F.A.Q.. Since version 2.1, Cecill is OSI-Approved. The Cecill licenses are less common than LGPL, BSD or MIT. At COOP we already felt that this could reduce the attractiveness of our products in, for example, European projects. Therefore we select the Cecill license when the target audience is mostly french. It not we rely on the MIT one.
Limited diffusion Licenses
There are obviously softwares that must comply to a limited diffusion strategy. The property and diffusion is regulated by multilateral contracts between usual partners. Let us see the baseline situation of a software developed at CERFACS, followed by a more controlled case: AVBP.
Baseline CERFACS License
At Cerfacs, the default Intellectual Property is defined by a global document, available upon request from CERFACS. Its french name is “Convention de Partenariat de Recherche et de Développement entre les associés du Cerfacs.
# The CERFACS Licence V.0
Copyright © 2023 CERFACS
Ce dépôt est la propriété du CERFACS.
En l'absence d'accord spécifique, les règles de d'utilisations sont régies pat la CONVENTION DE PARTENARIAT DE RECHERCHE ET DEVELOPPEMENT ENTRE ASSOCIES du CERFACS. Pour rappel les associés du CERFACS en 2023 sont : le CNES, AIRBUS, METEO FRANCE, ONERA, EDF , SAFRAN et TOTAL.
*This repository is the property of CERFACS.
In the absence of a specific agreement, the rules of use are governed by the RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT BETWEEN CERFACS ASSOCIATES. As a reminder, CERFACS partners in 2023 are: CNES, AIRBUS, METEO FRANCE, ONERA, EDF, SAFRAN and TOTAL.*
## Propriété Intellectuelle
Ces résultats sont propriété exclusive de la Société qui demeure libre de les utiliser et de les exploiter
sous réserve du respect des droits des Associés.
*CERFACS is the owner of this code and of all related developments, whatever the resources and financing methods.*
## User license
Les Associés et les Sociétés Bénéficiaires bénéficient d'un droit d'utilisation non exclusif et gratuit, ce droit d’utilisation étant strictement limité à la satisfaction de leurs Besoins Propres.
*The Associates and the Beneficiary Companies benefit from a non-exclusive and free right of use, this right of use being strictly limited to the satisfaction of their Own Needs.*
## Disclaimer
LE LOGICIEL EST FOURNI «EN L'ÉTAT», SANS GARANTIE D'AUCUNE SORTE, EXPRESSE OU IMPLICITE, Y COMPRIS MAIS SANS S'Y LIMITER LES GARANTIES DE QUALITÉ MARCHANDE, D'ADÉQUATION À UN USAGE PARTICULIER ET D'ABSENCE DE CONTREFAÇON. EN AUCUN CAS, LES AUTEURS OU LES TITULAIRES DES DROITS D'AUTEUR NE SERONT RESPONSABLES DE TOUTE RÉCLAMATION, DOMMAGE OU AUTRE RESPONSABILITÉ, QUE CE SOIT DANS UNE ACTION DE CONTRAT, DE TORT OU AUTRE, RÉSULTANT DE, HORS OU EN LIEN AVEC LE LOGICIEL OU L'UTILISATION OU D'AUTRES ACTIONS DANS LE LOGICIEL.
*THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS Is”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.*
A more explicit license, AVBP
If the software shows high potentials and benefits, It might be necessary to be more explicit. For example, a number of bilateral Non-Discolure Agreements with occasional partners add flexibility to enlarge the users and developers community.
This is the case for example with the code AVBP, with a limited diffusion to Cerfacs and its partners, excluding the potential competitors of partners.
The license can simply state the situation, like we did with this “AVBP&Friends License”:
# The AVBP general license (AVBP) V.0
Copyright © 2021 CERFACS
Ce logiciel fait partie de la suite logicielle AVBP.
Sa liberté d'exploitation est convenue dans l' **ACCORD DE COOPERATION CONCERNANT LE LOGICIEL« AVBP »** (Ci après, ACCORD).
En cas de litige, seul l'ACCORD original fait foi, devant un tribunal Français.
*This software is part of the AVBP software suite.
The freedom to operate this software is that agreed upon in the **"AVBP" SOFTWARE COOPERATION AGREEMENT** (hereinafter, AGREEMENT).
In the event of a dispute, only the original AGREEMENT is valid, before a French court.*
## Propriété Intellectuelle
le CERFACS est propriétaire du présent code et de tous développements y afférents quelque soient les ressources et modalités de financement.
*CERFACS is the owner of this code and of all related developments, whatever the resources and financing methods.*
## User license
Pour le CERFACS et ses actionnaires, l'utilisation pour des besoins propres ou a des fins commerciales est strictement encadrée par l'ACCORD.
En dehors du CERFACS et de ses actionnaires, tout tiers doit prendre contact avec le CERFACS pour établir un accord de collaboration (NDA, Non Disclosure Agreement) en conformité avec l'ACCORD.
*For CERFACS and its shareholders, use for own or commercial purposes is strictly regulated by the AGREEMENT.
Apart from CERFACS and its shareholders, any third party must contact CERFACS to establish a collaboration agreement (NDA, Non Disclosure Agreement) in accordance with the AGREEMENT.*
## Disclaimer
LE LOGICIEL EST FOURNI «EN L'ÉTAT», SANS GARANTIE D'AUCUNE SORTE, EXPRESSE OU IMPLICITE, Y COMPRIS MAIS SANS S'Y LIMITER LES GARANTIES DE QUALITÉ MARCHANDE, D'ADÉQUATION À UN USAGE PARTICULIER ET D'ABSENCE DE CONTREFAÇON. EN AUCUN CAS, LES AUTEURS OU LES TITULAIRES DES DROITS D'AUTEUR NE SERONT RESPONSABLES DE TOUTE RÉCLAMATION, DOMMAGE OU AUTRE RESPONSABILITÉ, QUE CE SOIT DANS UNE ACTION DE CONTRAT, DE TORT OU AUTRE, RÉSULTANT DE, HORS OU EN LIEN AVEC LE LOGICIEL OU L'UTILISATION OU D'AUTRES ACTIONS DANS LE LOGICIEL.
*THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS Is”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.*
Unlicensing
If, after all, you do not care of what will happen to your work and want to state it clearly, there is a specifi license: Unlicense. If you want to shout it with rude language, use MFL.
Takeaway
The license is imposed by the Intellectual Property (IP) status of the software. It boils down to two categories, that outside people easily understand:
- Use a development to attract people and engage collaboration. You need here a permissive license such as MIT. Of course no confidential stuff inside, ever.
- Grant to a selected community a clean access to your work. Use this only if you have parts confidential to you or to your partners. You will need multilateral contracts or NDA to back this up, and probably a forge to distribute code through filtered nominative accesses.
If you feel the IP is unclear, especially when only a little part of the code is changing the whole IP, consider splitting the code into a restricted development based on a more permissive developments. At COOP we use the Layer IP strategy with very good results, especially about the confidentiality awareness of contributors.