Licensing

[tinyjo]

I have written a plugin for the ljarchive program. It's nearly finished and once I've ironed out the last bug, I'll be releasing it on my website. The base program is licensed under the zlib/libpng license but I'm not entirely sure about that as it does give permission to use the code for commercial purposes (not that it's likely that anyone would).

So I have a few questions. First, what license should/can I use for my code? Am I obliged to use the zlib one and I am referencing libraries from the original project in mine? http://www.opensource.org/licenses/ links to tonnes of them - too many to think about. And then how do I go about applying that - do I need to c & p the notice into the source code somewhere? Is a link in the source to a page on my website sufficent?

Comments

[diffrentcolours]

The question to ask is not "what license do I want" but "what do I want people to be able to do with my code". Once that is answered, the choice of license should be much easier.

[e-pepys.livejournal.com]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/tinyjo/279822.html

From the zlib/libpng license I don't think you have to stick to the same license if you just link to the libraries. If you include any of the ljarchive source code (eg. modified header files, bwhehehe) then you have to follow the license conditions for them.

However you should think carefully before using a different license. If the two packages might in future be distributed together (eg. as part of a greater ljarchive package) but require different licenses, then packaging and distribution can become more complicated and may mean your package is left out. I guess it depends how much you care about commercial use?