 Unlicense logo | |
| Author | Arto Bendiken |
|---|---|
| Published | 2010 |
| SPDX identifier | Unlicense |
| FSF approved | Yes[1] |
| OSI approved | Yes[2] |
| GPL compatible | Yes[1] |
| Copyleft | No[1] |
| Linking from code with a different licence | Yes |
| Website | unlicense |
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The Unlicense is a public domain equivalent license for software which provides a public domain waiver with a fall-back public-domain-like license, similar to the CC Zero for cultural works.[3] It includes language used in earlier software projects and has a focus on an anti-copyright message.[4][5]
- ^ a b c "Various Licenses and Comments about Them - GNU Project § The Unlicense". Free Software Foundation. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
- ^ Chestek, Pamela (June 16, 2020). "[License-review] Request for legacy approval: The Unlicense". Archived from the original on September 8, 2020.
There is general agreement that the document is poorly drafted. It is an attempt to dedicate a work to the public domain (which, taken alone, would not be approved as an open source license) but it also has wording commonly used for license grants. There was some discussion about the legal effectiveness of the document, in particular how it would operate in a jurisdiction where one cannot dedicate a work to the public domain. The lawyers who opined on the issue, both US and non-US, agreed that the document would most likely be interpreted as a license and that the license met the OSD. It is therefore recommended for approval.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
fedorawas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Joe Brockmeier (January 11, 2010). "The Unlicense: A License for No License". OStatic. Archived from the original on January 22, 2017.
- ^ "Unlicense Yourself: Set Your Code Free". Retrieved February 28, 2017.