Skip to content

Sources

This page collects sources for claims made throughout the guide. Entries are organized alphabetically.


A

Apache Software Foundation. "ASF Legal Previously Asked Questions." Accessed 2024. https://www.apache.org/legal/resolved.html

Apache License 2.0 Text

Apache Software Foundation. "Apache License, Version 2.0." January 2004. https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0


B

BSD Advertising Clause Removal

Hoskins, William. "Withdrawal of BSD Advertising Clause." University of California, Berkeley. July 1999. https://www.freebsd.org/copyright/license/

Busybox GPL Lawsuit Announcement

Software Freedom Law Center. "BusyBox Developers and SFLC Announce First Ever GPL Violation Lawsuit." September 2007. https://softwarefreedom.org/news/2007/sep/20/busybox/

Busybox GPL Enforcement History

Software Freedom Conservancy. "BusyBox GPL Enforcement." 2007-2015. https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/


C

Creative Commons License Versions

Creative Commons. "License Versions." Accessed 2024. https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/

Crockford's JSON License

Crockford, Douglas. "JSON License." Accessed 2024. https://www.json.org/license.html


D

Debian JSON License Discussion

Debian Project. "JSON License Discussion." Debian Legal Mailing List. 2005. https://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/11/msg00154.html


E

Eclipse Public License 2.0

Eclipse Foundation. "Eclipse Public License - v 2.0." August 2017. https://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0/

Elastic License Change Announcement

Banon, Shay. "Doubling Down on Open." Elastic Blog. January 2021. https://www.elastic.co/blog/licensing-change

OpenSearch Fork Announcement

Amazon Web Services. "Introducing OpenSearch." April 2021. https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/introducing-opensearch/


F

FSF Four Freedoms Definition

Free Software Foundation. "What is Free Software?" Accessed 2024. https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

FSF License Commentary List

Free Software Foundation. "Various Licenses and Comments About Them." Accessed 2024. https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html


G

GPL License History

Free Software Foundation. "A Brief History of the GPL." Accessed 2024. https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-history.html

The GNU Manifesto

Stallman, Richard. "The GNU Manifesto." March 1985. https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html


H

HashiCorp BSL License Change

HashiCorp. "HashiCorp Adopts Business Source License." August 2023. https://www.hashicorp.com/blog/hashicorp-adopts-business-source-license


I

IBM JSON License Exception

Various. "IBM Obtains JSON License Exception." Referenced in multiple sources. 2011.


L

Linux Foundation OpenTofu Announcement

Linux Foundation. "OpenTofu." September 2023. https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/announcing-opentofu

Linux Foundation Valkey Launch

Linux Foundation. "Linux Foundation Launches Valkey." March 2024. https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/linux-foundation-launches-open-source-valkey-community


M

MariaDB Fork Announcement

Widenius, Michael. "Help saving MySQL." Monty Says Blog. December 2009. https://monty-says.blogspot.com/2009/12/help-saving-mysql.html

MongoDB SSPL License Change

MongoDB, Inc. "MongoDB Licensing Changes." October 2018. https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/mongodb-now-released-under-the-server-side-public-license

Mozilla MPL 2.0 FAQ

Mozilla Foundation. "MPL 2.0 FAQ." January 2012. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/MPL/2.0/FAQ/


O

Open Source Definition

Open Source Initiative. "The Open Source Definition." Accessed 2024. https://opensource.org/osd

Open Source Initiative History

Open Source Initiative. "History of the OSI." Accessed 2024. https://opensource.org/history

OpenTofu Manifesto

OpenTofu. "The OpenTofu Manifesto." August 2023. https://opentofu.org/manifesto

Oracle JDK Licensing Changes

Oracle Corporation. "Oracle Java SE Licensing FAQ." Updated 2019. https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase/jdk-faqs.html

Oracle v. Google Supreme Court Decision

Supreme Court of the United States. "Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc." April 2021. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/18-956_d18f.pdf


R

React MIT Relicensing Announcement

Facebook Engineering. "Relicensing React, Jest, Flow, and Immutable.js." September 2017. https://engineering.fb.com/2017/09/22/web/relicensing-react-jest-flow-and-immutable-js/

Red Hat IPO

Various. "Red Hat IPO." August 1999. Referenced in financial news archives.

Redis Dual License Change

Redis Ltd. "Redis Adopts Dual Source-Available Licensing." March 2024. https://redis.io/blog/redis-adopts-dual-source-available-licensing/


S

SCO v. IBM Litigation Timeline

Groklaw. "SCO v. IBM Timeline." 2003-2011. https://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=20031016162215566 (archived)

SCO Group Bankruptcy

SCO Group. "Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filing." September 2007. Court records, District of Delaware.

SPDX License List

SPDX Workgroup. "SPDX License List." Accessed 2024. https://spdx.org/licenses/

SSPL Open Source Initiative Rejection

Open Source Initiative. "The SSPL Is Not an Open Source License." January 2019. https://opensource.org/node/1099

Stack Overflow Content License

Stack Overflow. "Licensing." Accessed 2024. https://stackoverflow.com/help/licensing


V

VirtualBox Extension Pack License

Oracle Corporation. "VirtualBox Personal Use and Evaluation License." https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/VirtualBox_PUEL


Z

ZFS Linux Licensing Issues

Various. "ZFS on Linux Legal Issues." Multiple discussions, 2010-present. Referenced in Canonical, Debian, and Fedora project documentation.


Court Cases

Oracle v. Google Litigation Timeline

  • 2010: Oracle files suit against Google
  • 2012: District court rules APIs not copyrightable (Judge Alsup)
  • 2014: Federal Circuit reverses, rules APIs copyrightable
  • 2016: Jury finds Google's use is fair use
  • 2018: Federal Circuit reverses fair use finding
  • 2021: Supreme Court rules for Google on fair use grounds (6-2)

Source: Court records and reporting from Ars Technica, The Verge, and legal commentary.


For books, other guides, and additional resources, see Further Reading.