Private use

The default when no licence is granted. Copyright holder retains all rights. Nothing may be done without explicit permission.

A permissive license with an explicit patent grant. Common choice for large projects and corporate-backed open source.

A short permissive license that additionally forbids using the author's name to endorse derived works.

Source-available today, open-source tomorrow. Restricted use now with automatic conversion to an OSS license after a defined delay.

Attribution required; otherwise any use allowed, including commercial use and derivative works.

Attribution plus share-alike. Derivatives must be distributed under the same or a compatible licence.

Public-domain dedication. The author waives all copyright and related rights to the fullest extent allowed.

Source-available with three simple limitations, the biggest being no-hosting-as-a-service and no trademark use.

A starting point for a closed-source end-user licence. Have a lawyer review before you ship.

Network copyleft. Anyone who modifies and offers the software over a network must make the source available to users.

Strong copyleft. Distributed derivative works must be released under GPL-3.0.

Weak copyleft. Modifications to the library stay under LGPL; linking from other software is allowed.

Functionally equivalent to a simplified MIT / BSD. Very short.

A short, permissive license. The de-facto default for many open-source ecosystems.

File-level weak copyleft with a patent grant. A middle ground between permissive and strong-copyleft licenses.

Strong copyleft that extends to the entire stack required to offer the software as a managed service.