

Ask HN: my first open src. how do I choose a license? - cellis

Hey HN,<p>I've just written a simple as3 value object generator that allows you to transfer typed objects with amfphp. This was already available in Flex (see: weborb, among others), but I was unable to find a decent solution for pure as3.<p>So over a few days I wrote a few scripts that take a db and generate value objects from its tables, as well as service layers to do simple crud like Save, Query, QueryCollection etc.<p>I started the project hosting on google but realized i hadn't thought about a license type. Any suggestions?
======
paulgb
Here's a list of OSI approved licenses:
<http://www.opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical>

If you just want to slap a license on it and be done with it, my favorite is
zlib/libpng License. It's short and to the point, without legal BS. For a
larger project with many contributers, it makes sense to look into BSD vs. MIT
vs. LGPL, but otherwise that seems like over-complicating things.

------
SwellJoe
It's a library. I generally prefer LGPL or a BSD-like for those cases. It
insures the largest number of people can use the code without having another
license imposed on them. GPL is too restrictive for library usage, IMHO.

You could, of course, dual (or triple or quadruple) license the code if you
like. You are, after all, the copyright holder.

For what it's worth, I prefer GPL for full-blown applications that are more
likely to be added to rather than used for one piece of functionality in a
larger application.

~~~
cellis
Thanks Joe. Btw I use webmin and virtualmin almost everyday on my joyent box.
It's great software.

~~~
SwellJoe
Awesome. Glad to hear our stuff is useful to you.

As another data point or two, Webmin and Usermin are under a BSD-like license,
and the Open Source version of Virtualmin is GPL. Even though Webmin is a
full-blown application in its own right, we wanted it to be useful as a
platform for as many folks as possible. I'm still unsure if that was the best
license choice (hundreds of companies have built products on Webmin, and very
few have contributed back in any notable way), but it definitely has led to
widespread usage of the code.

