The Apache License

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Of the two most widely known and successful open source projects, Linux and Apache, only the latter is licensed under an academic license. That means ”as is true for any software licensed under an academic license ”that Apache software may be used by anyone , anywhere , for any purpose, including for inclusion in proprietary derivative works, without any obligation to disclose source code.

A copy of the current version of the Apache license is shown in the Appendices.

The first difference between the current Apache license and the BSD license is the following provision:

The end- user documentation included with the redistribution, if any, must include the following acknowledgment: "This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (www.apache.org/)." Alternately, this acknowledgment may appear in the software itself, if and wherever such third-party acknowledgments normally appear. (Apache License section 3.)

This provision differs significantly from the rescinded advertising clause of the original BSD license. (As a reminder, here's how that provision read: "All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgment: This product includes software devel -oped by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors.") The Apache license only requires an acknowledgment in "end-user documentation" or "in the software itself," not in "all advertising materials." The Apache license does not specify the prominence that must be given to that acknowledgment. The Apache license is consistent with the Open Source Principles because it does not interfere with the freedom to modify or create derivative works of open source software.

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Open Source Licensing. Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law
Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law
ISBN: 0131487876
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 166

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