Ubuntu is made up of a collection of free and open-source software. This page discusses what free and open-source actually means, and attempts to explain your rights with respect to free software.

Note: Do not use this page as a source of legal advice. It is only intended as a guide, and the correctness of information here cannot be guaranteed.

What is a Free License?

A free license is one which generally grants an individual the legal right to use, copy and distribute material (such as software) without restriction.

According to the Open Source Initiative, free software licenses have the following features:

See the Open Source Definition for more information about these points and see Wikipedia for an overview of free software licensing.

Commonly-Used Terms

Licenses

There are many other free licenses in common use, but most are similar to one of those listed above. See the pages below for listings of popular free licenses:

Resources

FreeLicenses (last edited 2008-07-24 17:11:14 by localhost)