License Chooser
License Chooser

This page helps you to understand the difference between licenses for sharing your work with others.

Click at left on types of licenses to see which terms apply, or click at right on specific rights you wish to reserve, and the License Chooser will identify any licenses that match your combination.

By default, most of these licenses allow re-use without permission under certain restrictions. However, this does not prevent the creator from negotiating a separate agreement for individuals. For example, you may offer your song freely to everyone for non-commercial use, but charge BMW to use it in a commercial.

Choose a license...
All-rights-reserved
Public-domain
Open-art
GPL
LGPL
CCby (BSD, MIT)
CCby-sa
CCby-nc-nd
Or choose the terms... [Show terms]
All rights reserved prohibits all reuse.
Attribution
Registration
Noncommercial
View Source
Combinations
Allowed Share Alike None
Transformations
Allowed Share Alike None
Add custom terms:

None of the above licenses matches the combination of rights you have chosen:
All rights reserved is the strongest form of copyright, and prohibits sharing or altering the original in any way outside of Fair Use. For example, an audio file with this restriction could not be distributed on a peer-to-peer filesharing network.
Public-domain means no license at all, giving away all control over how the work is used. (Experts disagree on whether this is "freer" than a sharealike license.)
Open-art is the default license for The Pool, similar to the GPL except for its requirement that any reuse of a work be registered back in the place you found it. Features:
GPL (or GNU General Public License) is the official license of the Free Software Foundation. One of the most popular brands of "open source" licenses, GPL is distinguished by its strong enforcement of the sharealike ("copyleft") principle, which advocates claim is more free than Public Domain. Features:
LGPL (or Lesser General Public License) is a version of the GPL that keeps the original software free but allows other parties to combine it with software that is not as free. For example, Apple's proprietary browser Safari is based on WebCore, released under the LGPL, and its Aqua interface is based on Darwin, released under the LGPL equivalent Apple Public Source License.
CCby/BSD is a minimal license that requires only that a copyright notice accompany any reuse. Three versions include the Creative Commons "attribution" license (CCby), the MIT license, and the Berkeley Software Distribution license (BSD), which prohibits using the original author's name to endorse or promote new reuses. Features:
CCby-sa is a Creative Commons license that requires any reuse to credit the original author (by including the original copyright notice) and that such reuse be offered under the same terms, so that all the authors' names will be added to the credits for a work as it changes with reuse over time.
CCby-nc-nd ("Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives") and CCmusic-sharing are two similar licenses from Creative Commons that encourage free distribution without any changes to the original. Features:
Attribution: The original credits must be incorporated verbatim into the artifact produced by the reuse. For example, the composer of a song with this restriction must be listed in the credits of a video if that song is used as its sound track.
Noncommercial: The reuse is not for profit. For example, an audio file with this restriction could be used as the sound track for an educational video available for the cost of shipping and handling, but not as the soundtrack for a BMW commercial.
Registration: A new user must notify the original community of that re-use. This notice may take many forms--including a message to an online forum or email list, or a comment on a blog--but ideally the notice should be accessible to an entire community. For example, a programmer who reuses a JavaScript from The Pool would need to add a reference to her derivative work back in The Pool.
View Source: The source file/s for the work must remain accessible to the public. For example, a song created with a music editor like Fruityloops must be released in both its final (mp3) and source (.flp) formats. (The Combinations and Transformations rights dictate whether reuse includes the right to modify such source file/s.)
Combinations allowed: The work can be combined with other material to create a new work; for example, a JavaScript could be used to make a Web site.
Sharealike Combinations: Whatever license terms restrict the original artifact must restrict other works combined with it in the future. For example, if a composer makes her song freely available for noncommercial purposes, then a video incorporating that song must also be available under the same terms. Also called "copyleft".
No Combinations: The artifact must be presented as is, without its incorporation into or combination with other artifacts in the same or other media. For example, a song with this restriction must be played alone and cannot be edited or incorporated into another song or video.
Transformations allowed: The work can be changed to create a new work; for example, a song could be speeded up, re-orchestrated, or remixed.
Sharealike Transformations: Whatever license terms restrict the original artifact must restrict reuses as well. For example, if a composer makes her song freely available for noncommercial purposes, then a remix of that song must also be available under the same terms. Also called "copyleft".
No Transformations: The artifact cannot be distorted or re-edited in its original medium. As long as the creator hasn't selected 'no combinations,' it may still be combined with other artifacts provided its original form remains intact. A song with these conditions may be reused as the soundtrack of a video if aspects like tempo, pitch, and instrumentation aren't modified.
Custom: A sentence or paragraph indicating special license terms not reducible to a combination of the yes-or-no choices listed on this form. Example: This song can be remixed by anyone not currently employed by Walt Disney Corporation. (max 255 characters)

This demo is drawn from the built-in License Chooser of The Pool, a project of Still Water.