You accept that your software could be "appropriated" by third parties, who could possibly re-distribute it (or create larger / derivative works) under the licence of their choice (including proprietary licences)?
Do you accept all kind or re-licensing (of your software, of derivatives of your software) alone or merged in a larger work?
- In such case, the popular MIT or BSD permissive licences are simple and appropriate.
- In case the use or distribution of the work may be covered by patents, the selection of the Apache licence will provide more quarantees to recipients, since all contributors grant them patent rights, as far it is necessary to use, offer, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Work
Over the time, the above permissive licences became increasingly popular among "non-lawyer-developers", who dislike red tape and the risk of incompatibilities resulting from some "copyleft" licences.
Do you accept that your software will be used as "component" or "building block" of larger works, that could be re-licensed under any licence (including proprietary licences) without changing the licence of your software "taken alone" and its specific derivatives?
- In such case, the LGPL licence or the MPL licence seems the most appropriate.
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