Which FOSS licence would you suggest me?

Submitted ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago by leo_mantovani@lemmy.ml to opensource@lemmy.ml

I'm rebuilding an app that I made few years ago to make it open-source and free from big company dependencies (for example replacing Firebase with Appwrite)... Now, since it's already live on Codeberg, I think it would be good to give it a license but I'm super new to FOSS licenses and so I don't know how to move... Which one would you suggest me?

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Yujiri@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Depends on what terms you want. Summary of popular options:

GPL is meant to ensure that any derivative works are also FOSS

LGPL is similar, but the definition of "derivative work" is narrower, so proprietary projects can use its code as long as they aren't extending the LGPL work itself. Often used for libraries

AGPL is like GPL, but also applies if someone is using your software as the backend for a network service rather than a program they distribute to users. A company can make a derivate work of GPLed software and offer access to it as a network service without being subject to the GPL terms because making something available as a network service doesn't count as distributing the derived work.

ISC (or MIT or BSD, all roughly the same) is meant to not project derivative works. It makes your project FOSS but allows proprietary derivatives
- leo_mantovani@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Thank you! And, if for example someone forks my code and start distributing his new forked app, is there a license which would force him/her to credit the original project?
poVoq@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Most likely GPLv3 for the client app and AGPL for any server side component.
jiaminglimjm@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
if u write ur program in Mandarin u wont need any license cuz no corporation will touch that
realcaseyrollins@narwhal.city ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I would love to see a good comparison between all the different licenses
- vpzom@narwhal.city ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  https://choosealicense.com/licenses/ covers the most popular at least
  - realcaseyrollins@narwhal.city ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Very cool! Thank you!
- greensand@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Good enough:
  
  https://opensource.org/licenses/category
  
  https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLCompatibleLicenses