What about Users?

I will begin in Chapter 4 to explain the broad categories of open source licenses ”particularly academic and reciprocal licenses ”that are available today. I follow that in Chapters 5 through 9 with detailed license descriptions of the major open source licenses.

Fortunately for users of open source software, none of the distinctions between academic and reciprocal licenses, or among the various project and company licenses described in this book, matter much. Individual users don't often have to concern themselves with the intricate conditions of these licenses, or warranties, or patent defenses, or other esoteric legal issues. Users of open source software typically do not create and distribute derivative works, so a reciprocity provision does not apply to them.

For these reasons, mere users of open source software can safely ignore the rest of this book. Open source software is completely free for users. All open source software, whether licensed under academic or reciprocal licenses, can be freely used by anyone , anywhere , for any purpose whatsoever. Copies of that software can be made without payment of additional royalties to the licensor and, for the most part, without concern about the specific license terms.