A Primer on Open Licenses
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer
all slides are CC-BY 4.0
OLS, �Anna e só, Yo
Motivation:
Allow others to use, remix and share your work.
Method:
Add an open license for use, remixing and sharing.
@openlifesci, CC-BY 4.0, The Turing Way, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4609987
Common Misconceptions
❌ Sharing something on the internet or GitHub does NOT automatically allow others to use it.
❌ Sharing work with a license does NOT give away your copyright—you can still publish, sell, etc.
❌ Using work shared with an open license without attribution CAN BE legal, but is still a violation of academic ethics.
open seeds
mentoring & training program
Open Source Licenses - Definition, Types, and Comparison. (2024, September 10). Retrieved from https://solutionshub.epam.com/blog/post/open-source-licenses-definition-types-and-comparison
Truly Open Licenses: common elements
“Open source software is software that can be freely used, modified, and shared (in both modified and unmodified form) by anyone. “
use
Anyone can use the work for any purpose
modify
Anyone can modify the work
share
Anyone can redistribute both the original and modified work to anyone else with the same license
Open Licenses for documentation �(non-code project outputs)
Creative Commons: Understanding Free Content. https://www.hallaminternet.com/understanding-creative-commons
Open Licenses for code & software
Open Source Licenses - Definition, Types, and Comparison. (2024, September 10). Retrieved from https://solutionshub.epam.com/blog/post/open-source-licenses-definition-types-and-comparison
Attribution
Most open licenses require crediting the authors of the work.
@openlifesci, CC-BY 4.0, The Turing Way, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4609987
Wrinkle #1: Copyleft & Derivative Works
Non-copyleft
(permissive, non-reciprocal)
Open licenses that do not require derivative works to shared with the same license.
Copyleft
(reciprocal, aka ‘viral’)
Open licenses that require all derivative works to be shared with the same license.
Examples:
CC BY
MIT, BSD, APL-2.0
Examples:
CC BY-SA
GPLv3, MPL-2.0
Wrinkle #2: Patents != Copyright
Open source software licenses may or may not contain a clause explicitly granting patent rights.
If you plan to patent your software, defend your patent, etc. talk to a lawyer!
How to Apply License
data
≠
code
≠
creative works�(e.g. writing or images)
Place the full text of the license in a file named LICENSE in the root directory.
Apply licenses to all components, content: CC-BY, software: MIT, data: CC0
Describe in README which license applies to which parts of your work.
@openlifesci, CC-BY 4.0, The Turing Way, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4609987
| non-copyleft | copyleft |
No patent clause | BSD, MIT | |
Patent snapback | APL- 2.0 | GPLv3, MPL-2.0 |
| non-copyleft | copyleft |
No attribution | CC0 | |
Attribution | CC BY | CC BY-SA |
GitHub can add a license for you, Part 1
GitHub can add a license for you, Part 2
when adding a new file named LICENSE...
TL; DR
@openlifesci, CC-BY 4.0, The Turing Way, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4609987
Further Reading
Choose a License
Thank you!
The OLS program helps early stage researchers and potential academic leaders in becoming Open Science ambassadors.
What Open Science dreams will you achieve?