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Research software licensing guide

Complications

Henry Wolf, Alfred Fredericks, The Challenge, 1880, photomechanical wood engraving on paper

Find the terms under which you obtained the code. There might be a file “LICENSING”, “COPYING”, “RIGHTS”, “USAGE” or similar in the distribution. If that fails, have a look at the website where you downloaded it. To search for licensing information in large projects, there are tools such as fossa-cli and Licensee to help you with that.

  1. Is the third party code in the public domain?

    Public domain software can often be recognised by the CC0 Public Domain Dedication or the Public Domain Mark. Software created by US federal government institutions such as NASA, NOAA, EPA, … is usually in the public domain. Check the respective website.

    ⚠️ NO

    Continue to point 2.

  2. The Open Source Licenses recommended here are:

    ✅ YES

    If the third-party software is licensed under one of the common Open Source licenses recommended here, you are all good if you publish the combined program under the AGPL v3.

    Apply the AGPL!

    ⚠️ NO

    Continue to point 3.

  3. Is the third party software licensed under a different “GPL-compatible” Open Source License?

    The Free Software Foundation maintains a list of GPL-compatible licenses

    .

    ✅ YES

    If the third-party software is licensed under a different Open Source license, which is listed as GPL-compatible, you are all good if you publish the combined program under the AGPL v3.

    Apply the AGPL!

    ⚠️ NO

    Continue to point 4.

  4. Did you obtain the third party software under a proprietary license?

    ❌️YES

    If you obtained the software under a proprietary license, you usually can’t re-distribute the software as part of your work. Proprietary licenses are most often attached to software you had to buy and they usually prohibit re-distribution. Get in touch with with an expert consultant to try find a workaround.

    ⚠️NO

    Continue to point 5.

  5. Do you have any license for the third party software?

    ⚠️ YES

    Continue to point 6.

    ❌️ NO

    If you can’t find a license or a public-domain dedication, you can’t re-distribute the software as part of your work. Get in touch with the vendor or programmer of the third-party software and obtain permission.

  6. ⚠️ The licensing situation of the third-party code is not covered here.

    The license of the third-party software doesn’t seem to fall into one of the categories above. Maybe you are facing a more complex situation, e.g. if you intend to use different pieces of third-party code that are licensed under incompatible terms.

    Get in touch with with an expert consultant to try figure it out.