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* xref:index.adoc[] | ||
** xref:layers.adoc[] | ||
** xref:licenses.adoc[] | ||
** Project Editor | ||
*** xref:project-editor/assembly-data.adoc[] | ||
*** xref:project-editor/output-jobs.adoc[] |
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= Licenses | ||
|
||
When creating a new project, LibrePCB allows to specify a license for it. | ||
This chapter gives an overview about the available licenses to help | ||
you deciding which makes most sense for your project. | ||
|
||
First of all, choosing a license is not mandatory. Especially if you don't | ||
intend to make the project public, it's totally fine to skip the license | ||
selection. However, for projects made public it's highly recommended to | ||
specify a license to let other people know what they are allowed or not | ||
allowed to do with your project. Theoretically you could write your own | ||
license text, but it's recommended to choose one of the already existing, | ||
well-known licenses. | ||
|
||
[IMPORTANT] | ||
==== | ||
**Please always read the full, original license text instead of relying on the | ||
information on this page.** First, this page presents licenses in a very | ||
simplified form without all their details. Second, this documentation is not | ||
approved by a lawyer so it may not be correct. We're not responsible for any | ||
implications caused by incomplete or wrong information on this page. | ||
==== | ||
|
||
== Available Licenses | ||
|
||
The following licenses are provided by LibrePCB (depending on the installed | ||
version): | ||
|
||
[%autowidth,cols=",,,"] | ||
|=== | ||
| License | Permissions | Conditions | Limitations | ||
|
||
|{set:cellbgcolor:#00FF0020} | ||
*https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/[CC0-1.0]* + | ||
https://choosealicense.com/licenses/cc0-1.0/[Summary] | ||
| | ||
✅ Distribution + | ||
✅ Modification + | ||
✅ Commercial use + | ||
| | ||
| | ||
❌ No liability + | ||
❌ No warranty + | ||
|
||
|{set:cellbgcolor:-} | ||
*https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/[CC-BY-4.0]* + | ||
https://choosealicense.com/licenses/cc-by-4.0/[Summary] | ||
| | ||
✅ Distribution + | ||
✅ Modification + | ||
✅ Commercial use + | ||
| | ||
⚠ <<license-notice>> + | ||
⚠ <<license-statechanges>> + | ||
| | ||
❌ No liability + | ||
❌ No warranty + | ||
|
||
| *https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/[CC-BY-SA-4.0]* + | ||
https://choosealicense.com/licenses/cc-by-sa-4.0/[Summary] | ||
| | ||
✅ Distribution + | ||
✅ Modification + | ||
✅ Commercial use + | ||
| | ||
⚠ <<license-notice>> + | ||
⚠ <<license-statechanges>> + | ||
⚠ <<license-samelicense>> + | ||
| | ||
❌ No liability + | ||
❌ No warranty + | ||
|
||
| *https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/[CC-BY-NC-4.0]* | ||
| | ||
✅ Distribution + | ||
✅ Modification + | ||
| | ||
⚠ <<license-notice>> + | ||
⚠ <<license-statechanges>> + | ||
| | ||
❌ No liability + | ||
❌ No warranty + | ||
❌ Non-commercial only + | ||
|
||
| *https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/[CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0]* | ||
| | ||
✅ Distribution + | ||
✅ Modification + | ||
| | ||
⚠ <<license-notice>> + | ||
⚠ <<license-statechanges>> + | ||
⚠ <<license-samelicense>> + | ||
| | ||
❌ No liability + | ||
❌ No warranty + | ||
❌ Non-commercial only + | ||
|
||
| *https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/[CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0]* | ||
| | ||
✅ Distribution + | ||
✅ (Modification) + | ||
| | ||
⚠ <<license-notice>> + | ||
⚠ <<license-statechanges>> + | ||
| | ||
❌ No liability + | ||
❌ No warranty + | ||
❌ No derivatives + | ||
❌ Non-commercial only + | ||
|
||
| *https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/[CC-BY-ND-4.0]* | ||
| | ||
✅ Distribution + | ||
✅ (Modification) + | ||
✅ Commercial use + | ||
| | ||
⚠ <<license-notice>> + | ||
⚠ <<license-statechanges>> + | ||
| | ||
❌ No liability + | ||
❌ No warranty + | ||
❌ No derivatives + | ||
|
||
| *https://tapr.org/the-tapr-open-hardware-license/[TAPR-OHL-1.0]* | ||
| | ||
✅ Distribution + | ||
✅ Modification + | ||
✅ Commercial use + | ||
| | ||
⚠ <<license-notice>> + | ||
⚠ <<license-statechanges>> + | ||
⚠ <<license-samelicense>> + | ||
⚠ Notify upstream developers + | ||
| | ||
❌ No liability + | ||
❌ No warranty + | ||
|
||
| *https://ohwr.org/cern_ohl_p_v2.pdf[CERN-OHL-P-2.0]* + | ||
https://choosealicense.com/licenses/cern-ohl-p-2.0/[Summary] + | ||
https://ohwr.org/project/cernohl/wikis/faq[FAQ] | ||
| | ||
✅ Distribution + | ||
✅ Modification + | ||
✅ Commercial use + | ||
| | ||
⚠ <<license-notice>> + | ||
⚠ <<license-statechanges>> + | ||
| | ||
❌ No liability + | ||
❌ No warranty + | ||
|
||
| *https://ohwr.org/cern_ohl_w_v2.pdf[CERN-OHL-W-2.0]* + | ||
https://choosealicense.com/licenses/cern-ohl-w-2.0/[Summary] + | ||
https://ohwr.org/project/cernohl/wikis/faq[FAQ] | ||
| | ||
✅ Distribution + | ||
✅ Modification + | ||
✅ Commercial use + | ||
| | ||
⚠ <<license-notice>> + | ||
⚠ <<license-statechanges>> + | ||
⚠ <<license-samelicense>> (relaxed) + | ||
⚠ Disclose source + | ||
| | ||
❌ No liability + | ||
❌ No warranty + | ||
|
||
| *https://ohwr.org/cern_ohl_s_v2.pdf[CERN-OHL-S-2.0]* + | ||
https://choosealicense.com/licenses/cern-ohl-s-2.0/[Summary] + | ||
https://ohwr.org/project/cernohl/wikis/faq[FAQ] | ||
| | ||
✅ Distribution + | ||
✅ Modification + | ||
✅ Commercial use + | ||
| | ||
⚠ <<license-notice>> + | ||
⚠ <<license-statechanges>> + | ||
⚠ <<license-samelicense>> (strong) + | ||
⚠ Disclose source + | ||
| | ||
❌ No liability + | ||
❌ No warranty + | ||
|=== | ||
|
||
[[license-notice]]License and Copyright Notice:: | ||
A copy of the license and copyright notice must be included with the | ||
licensed material. | ||
[[license-statechanges]]State Changes:: | ||
Modifications made to the licensed material must be documented. | ||
[[license-samelicense]]Same License:: | ||
If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute | ||
your contributions under the same license as the original. | ||
|
||
== Other Licenses | ||
|
||
If you like to use a license not available in LibrePCB, or if you're not sure | ||
yet and want to decide later, just skip the license selection when creating | ||
the project. Then add it manually afterwards as follows: | ||
|
||
1. Close the project in LibrePCB. | ||
2. In the root directory of the project, add a file named `LICENSE.txt` | ||
containing the license terms. | ||
3. Open `README.md` in a text editor and replace this line: + | ||
+ | ||
[source,markdown] | ||
---- | ||
No license set. | ||
---- | ||
+ | ||
by this one: | ||
+ | ||
[source,markdown] | ||
---- | ||
See [LICENSE.txt](LICENSE.txt). | ||
---- | ||
|
||
Or if you want to switch to a different license after you created a new | ||
project, just replace the file `LICENSE.txt` manually. LibrePCB itself does | ||
not provide a tool to change the license of an existing project. | ||
|
||
== Additional Actions | ||
|
||
Note that some licenses may require to perform additional actions to correctly | ||
apply those licenses to a project. This applies mainly to the OHL licenses, | ||
but to be sure please check the license texts. | ||
|
||
[NOTE] | ||
==== | ||
Please help us documenting the additional actions | ||
https://github.com/LibrePCB/librepcb-doc[on GitHub]! | ||
==== | ||
|
||
== Recommendation | ||
|
||
Of course choosing a license is a personal decision and any recommendation | ||
from our side will be subjective. But generally, if you simply don't care | ||
what people will do with your project, or you want to give them maximum | ||
freedom (without any liability or warranty from your side), we think | ||
**CC0-1.0** is a great choice as this will allow _everyone_ to use your | ||
project for _any_ purpose. If you want to be quite restrictive and don't | ||
want your project to be used for closed-source products, **CERN-OHL-S-2.0** | ||
shouldn't be a bad choice. | ||
|
||
== License of Libraries | ||
|
||
Not only projects, but also libraries can be released under a certain | ||
license. However, we think public libraries should be released exclusively | ||
under the **CC0-1.0** license. Any other license would make it too | ||
complicated for other people to create projects using these libraries, | ||
fulfilling all license terms of any used library. | ||
|
||
Thus when creating a new library, CC0-1.0 is the only available option and | ||
all official libraries are published under this license so you can do with | ||
these libraries whatever you want, whether for commercial or non-commercial | ||
use. |