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License Awareness



Highly Reusable Software

By activity
Professions, Sciences, Humanities, Business, ...

User Interface
Text-based, GUI, Audio, Video, Keyboards, Mouse, Images,...

Text Strings
Conversions, tests, processing, manipulation,...

Math
Integer, Floating point, Matrix, Statistics, Boolean, ...

Processing
Algorithms, Memory, Process control, Debugging, ...

Stored Data
Data storage, Integrity, Encryption, Compression, ...

Communications
Networks, protocols, Interprocess, Remote, Client Server, ...

Hard World
Timing, Calendar and Clock, Audio, Video, Printer, Controls...

File System
Management, Filtering, File & Directory access, Viewers, ...


Selecting a software license


Many rights, including copying and creating derivative works, are reserved to the copyright holder by law. The law provides that the copyright holder can offer terms which give conditional permission for the copying, modification, and redistribution of works. For software this is most often called "the license agreement." Generally, if you do not agree to the license, the law prohibits you from distributing copies or derivative works, and other activities.

In choosing license terms, the copyright holder must often balance multiple goals, some of which may be conflicting. The license can define and determine the success or failure meeting those goals. Since there are many common goals in software development community, there are a number of licenses and clauses which are reusable, in a sense.

The multi-purpose LIDESC form can aid software developers in selecting a license or finding certain license clauses.

Follow these steps:
  1. Load the multi-purpose form
  2. Select the checkboxes for attributes which advance the goals
  3. Submit.

Next topic: Examples of software licenses with certain characteristics
Up to: The list of standard LIDESC symbols and their meanings


Librock LIDESC. Software License Analyzer and Compatibility Reporter
Copyright 2001-2002, Forrest J. Cavalier III, Mib Software
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