Academic Free License
Encyclopedia
The Academic Free License (AFL) is a permissive free software license written in 2002 by Lawrence E. Rosen, the general counsel
of the Open Source Initiative
(OSI).
The license grants similar rights to the BSD, MIT
, UoI/NCSA
and Apache
licenses — licenses allowing the software to be made proprietary
— but was written to correct perceived problems with those licenses:
The Free Software Foundation
consider all AFL versions through 3.0 as incompatible
with the GNU GPL
. though Eric S. Raymond
(a co-founder of the OSI) contends that AFL 3.0 is GPL compatible. In late 2002, an OSI working draft considered it a "best practice" license. In mid 2006, however, the OSI's License Proliferation Committee found it "redundant with more popular licenses", specifically version 2 of the Apache Software License.
General Counsel
A general counsel is the chief lawyer of a legal department, usually in a corporation or government department. The term is most used in the United States...
of the Open Source Initiative
Open Source Initiative
The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software.The organization was founded in February 1998, by Bruce Perens and Eric S. Raymond, prompted by Netscape Communications Corporation publishing the source code for its flagship Netscape Communicator product...
(OSI).
The license grants similar rights to the BSD, MIT
MIT License
The MIT License is a free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . It is a permissive license, meaning that it permits reuse within proprietary software provided all copies of the licensed software include a copy of the MIT License terms...
, UoI/NCSA
University of Illinois/NCSA Open Source License
The University of Illinois/NCSA Open Source License is a permissive free software licence, based on the MIT/X11 and BSD licenses. By combining parts of these two licenses, it attempts to be clearer and more concise than either....
and Apache
Apache License
The Apache License is a copyfree free software license authored by the Apache Software Foundation . The Apache License requires preservation of the copyright notice and disclaimer....
licenses — licenses allowing the software to be made proprietary
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
— but was written to correct perceived problems with those licenses:
- The AFL makes clear what software is being licensed by including a statement following the software's copyright notice;
- The AFL includes a complete copyright grant to the software;
- The AFL contains a complete patent grant to the software;
- The AFL makes clear that no trademark rights are granted to the licensor's trademarks;
- The AFL warrants that the licensor either owns the copyright or is distributing the software under a license;
- The AFL is itself copyrighted, with the right granted to copy and distribute without modification.
The Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
consider all AFL versions through 3.0 as incompatible
License compatibility
License compatibility refers to the problem with licenses applied to works subject to copyright, particularly licenses of software packages, which can contain contradictory requirements, rendering it impossible to combine source code from such packages or content from such works in order to create...
with the GNU GPL
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
. though Eric S. Raymond
Eric S. Raymond
Eric Steven Raymond , often referred to as ESR, is an American computer programmer, author and open source software advocate. After the 1997 publication of The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Raymond was for a number of years frequently quoted as an unofficial spokesman for the open source movement...
(a co-founder of the OSI) contends that AFL 3.0 is GPL compatible. In late 2002, an OSI working draft considered it a "best practice" license. In mid 2006, however, the OSI's License Proliferation Committee found it "redundant with more popular licenses", specifically version 2 of the Apache Software License.
See also
- License proliferationLicense proliferationLicense proliferation refers to the problems created when additional software licenses are written for software packages. License proliferation affects the free software community. Often when a software developer would like to merge portions of different software programs they are unable to do so...
- Open Software LicenseOpen Software LicenseThe Open Software License is a software license created by Lawrence Rosen. The Open Source Initiative has certified it as an open source license, but the Debian project judged version 1.1 to be incompatible with the DFSG...
- similar, but reciprocal license by the same author
External links
- Text of the Academic Free License v3.0
- Allocation of the Risk by Lawrence Rosen (PDFPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
) - reasoning behind the Academic Free License