FOSS License Additional Metadata
Project description
FOSS Licenses
A database with meta data for FOSS licenses adding useful information to existing licenses aiming at simplifying compliance work. The meta data consists of:
-
compatibility as (another license)
-
other names (aliases)
-
license text
Background
There are lots of software licenses out there (e.g. see ScanCode LicenseDB), some of them are FOSS and some not. In this project we primarily focus on FOSS licenses.
License name proliferation
When you're working with compliance you are used to liceses called differently in source code or by tools (e.g. GPLv2
, GPL (v2)
and GNU General Public License Version 2
) when all you really want too see is the SPDX identifier GPL-2.0-only
. A seasoned compliance engineer or lawyer knows this already, but we need this information machine readable.
License proliferation
Another problem you face when working with compliance is the need to check whether the licenses in a combined work are compatible. One example is the X11-Style (Keith Packard)
license, which really is the same license as the Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer - sell variant. X11-Style (Keith Packard)
is not supported in for example the OSADL matrix, but HPND-sell-variant
is. Again, a seasoned license engineer or lawyer knows which licenses are compatible and not, but we need to make it possible for a machine to assist us.
About
This projet aims at providing a database with:
-
"all" different names for a license in a database
-
mappings from one license to another license which is supported by the OSADL matrix
and, to make the database easier to use:
-
a Python API
-
command line tool
Database
The data can be found in the var directory. Each license has a JSON file with meta information and a LICENSE file with the license text.
Tools and APIs
-
flame - command line program
Contributions
More info soon.
Related tools and projects
-
flict - FOSS License Compatibility Tool
-
License Compatibility Matrix - a matrix with license compatibilities
-
scancode - ScanCode toolkit
-
ScanCode LicenseDB - a database with licenses
Acknowledgements
-
Nexb for their general and generous work in FOSS compliance, especially scancode and ScanCode LicenseDB.
-
OSADL for their License Compatibility Matrix
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