正确应用开源许可证 [英] Correctly Applying an Open Source License

问题描述

我的问题由多个与内在相关的点组成，对此我深表歉意.我尝试将其拆分开一些，但我会不断重复.

My question consists of multiple points that are inherently related, I apologize for that. I tried splitting it up a little more, but I would keep repeating myself.

1. 将开放源代码许可证应用于属于我的知识产权的代码库到底需要什么?
2. 许多开源项目在根目录中的某个位置包含许可证的完整副本，但也包含某种文件标头，包括许可证说明，免责声明和版权声明.真的有必要吗?还是取决于许可证类型?
3. 如果其他人对此文件进行了更改，是否也需要在版权声明中指定他的名字?

推荐答案

免责声明
我不是律师，因此您应该在这里真正与律师协商以获得绝对正确的答案.

Disclaimer
I am not a lawyer, so you should really consult with one to get absolutely correct answers here.

据我所知...

无论您编写任何东西，无论是代码还是其他任何东西，您都将自动成为该作品的版权拥有者(除非您已签订协议，将其视为出租作品").

Whenever you author something, whether it be code or anything else, you automatically become the copyright owner of that work (unless you've signed an agreement whereby it is "work for hire").

作为版权所有者，您可以应用所需的任何许可证.事实是，如果您不颁发许可证，那么没有人有权使用，复制，修改，分发等您受版权保护的作品.因此，用户需要您的许可证才能使用该项目(如果您不授予许可证，则与流行的看法相反，不能将其假定为公共领域).因此，您不必担心人们会忽略许可...如果他们不能指向许可，您可以在其中授予他们使用软件的权利，作为版权所有者，您可以起诉他们使用受版权保护的作品未经您的明确许可.

As the copyright owner, you can apply whatever license you like. The fact is that, if you don't give out a license, then no one has any right to use, copy, modify, distribute, etc. your coyrighted work. So, users need your license to have permission to use the project (if you don't give a license, it cannot, contrary to popular belief, be presumed public domain). So, you don't need to worry about people ignoring the license... if they can't point to a license where you grant them rights to use your software, as the copyright owner, you can sue them for using your copyrighted work without your express permission to do so.

在开源项目中，通常将许可证放置在项目顶级目录中名为"LICENSE"或"COPYING"的文件中.我建议您遵守此约定，因为这是人们寻找许可证的地方.在项目的网站上指明许可证的内容也很不错，这样人们就不必知道许可证协议是什么就不必下载整个项目.

It is typical in open source projects to place the license in a file named "LICENSE" or "COPYING" in the top-level directory of the project. I suggest that you stick to this convention, since that is where people will look for the license. It is also good to indicate what the license is on the project's website, so that people don't have to download your whole project before they know what the license agreement is.

尽管这是相当普遍的做法，但不必在每个源代码文件中包含许可证的完整副本.但是请记住，将许可证的完整副本(或至少一些版权声明和许可证名称(如果是众所周知的许可证，如果是众所周知的许可证))放置在您安装的任何头文件中将避免任何混淆.关于头文件的起源，所以这样做是合理的.

It is not necessary to include a full copy of the license in each source code file, although this is fairly common practice. Keep in mind, though, that putting a full copy of the license (or at least some indication of copyright ownership and the name of the license, if it is a well-known license) in any header files that you install will avoid any confusion as to where the header files originated, so it is reasonable to do that.

如果您拥有该项目，而其他人则以类似于以工作聘请"的方式进行贡献，那么就不必命名贡献者了.但是，尽管做出了贡献，您仍应明确表示(并从贡献者那里获得协议的永久记录)，您将仍然是该项目的唯一版权拥有者.否则，贡献者对他们贡献的文件/代码确实拥有版权.

If you own the project and others contribute in a fashion similar to "work for hire", then it is not necessary to name the contributors. However, you should make it explicit (and get a permanent record of an agreement from contributors) that you will remain the sole copyright owner of the project, despite contributions made. Otherwise, the contributors do have copyright ownership over the files/code that they contributed.

与问题无关的最后一件事...我强烈建议您避免使用GPL和LGPL，而应申请更为宽松的许可证(例如MIT，New BSD，Simplified BSD)，因为前者会限制可采用性的代码以及拥有更多自由许可证的项目(如果确实在行业中被采用的话)有可能得到行业的支持(例如，Apache Foundation拥有强大的行业支持，因为与GNU/FSF不同，它错误地认为开放源代码封闭的来源成为敌人，将他们视为合作者，因此使用许可证，使他们的项目能够被工业界广泛采用.

One last thing, not related to the question... I highly recommend that you avoid GPL and LGPL, and go for a more permissive license (e.g. MIT, New BSD, Simplified BSD), as the former will limit the adoptability of your code, and projects with more liberal licenses, if they do become adopted in the industry, have the potential to be backed by the industry (e.g. the Apache Foundation has strong industry support, because, unlike GNU/FSF which mistakenly views open source and closed source as enemies, sees them as collaborators, and so uses licenses that allow their projects to be widely adopted by the industry world).

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