open-source-licensing
Safeguard articles tagged "open-source-licensing" — guides, analysis, and best practices for software supply chain and application security.
19 articles
Best License Compliance Tools in 2026: An Honest Buyer's Guide
A balanced 2026 comparison of the leading open-source license compliance tools — FOSSA, Black Duck, Mend, Snyk, and the ScanCode/FOSSology open-source stack — with an honest look at where Safeguard fits.
License compliance checks for open source dependencies on...
GitHub Advanced Security scans for vulnerabilities, not license risk. Here's what real open source license compliance requires—and where GHAS falls short.
What is the BSD license? Top 10 questions answered
The BSD license explained: its 0-, 2-, 3-, and 4-clause variants, how it differs from MIT and GPL, and which real projects run on it.
GPL vs MIT vs Apache: license security and compliance implications
Redis, Vizio, and Cisco show how GPL, MIT, and Apache 2.0 licenses create real legal and compliance exposure across your software supply chain.
Copyleft vs Permissive Licenses
Copyleft and permissive licenses trigger different legal obligations. Here's how GPL, AGPL, MIT, and Apache 2.0 actually differ — with real lawsuits and relicensing cases.
What is Open Source Software
Open source software now sits in 96% of codebases. Here's what OSS actually is, how licensing works, and where the real security risk hides.
License and Regulatory Risk in Open Source Components
Redis, HashiCorp, and Elastic all re-licensed core projects since 2021, and new rules like the EU Cyber Resilience Act now make license and SBOM gaps a regulatory problem.
MIT License and Commercial Use: What You Can and Cannot Do
The MIT License lets you use, modify, and sell software commercially with almost no restrictions — as long as you keep the copyright notice. Here is exactly what that permits and requires.
The BSD License: Full Form and Terms Explained
The BSD license full form is the Berkeley Software Distribution license — a permissive open-source license with fewer obligations than the GPL family, and a few variants worth telling apart.
GNU AGPL vs GPL: When AGPL Actually Applies
The GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 closes the network-use loophole that GPL leaves open — here's exactly when that difference matters for your codebase.
Software Escrow and Supply Chain Continuity Planning
Most escrow deposits are write-only: nobody ever verifies they build. What escrow actually covers, when to pay for verification, and what continuity means for SaaS and OSS.
The GNU General Public License, Explained in Plain Terms
A GPL license explained without legal jargon: what copyleft actually requires, when it triggers, and what it means for a codebase that links against GPL-licensed code.