open-source-licensing
Safeguard articles tagged "open-source-licensing" — guides, analysis, and best practices for software supply chain and application security.
47 articles
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.
Node.js License: What Actually Applies to Your App
Node.js itself ships under a permissive MIT-style license, but your app's real license exposure comes from the hundreds of npm packages riding along with it.
Software License Models: A Comparison
Types of software license models split into three broad camps — proprietary, permissive open source, and copyleft — plus the newer source-available middle ground companies keep inventing to protect commercial interests.
GNU GPL v3.0 Obligations, in Plain English
The GNU General Public License v3.0 explained without the legal phrasing: what you must do when you distribute software that includes GPL-3.0 code, and what triggers those obligations.
MIT License vs Apache 2.0: Which to Pick
MIT license vs Apache 2.0 comes down to one real question: do you need an explicit patent grant and contribution terms, or do you want the shortest possible license text?
GitHub Licenses: Choosing One for Your Repo
A practical walkthrough of the license options GitHub surfaces when you create a repo, and how to pick one that matches what you actually want people to do with your code.
Software Licenses Explained: A Practical Guide for Engineering Teams
Software licenses fall into a few clear buckets — permissive, copyleft, and proprietary — and knowing which is which decides what you can legally ship. Here is the map, without the legalese.
GPLv3 License: What Changed From GPLv2
GPLv3 added patent protection and anti-tivoization clauses that GPLv2 never had. Here's what actually changed and why it still matters for dependency compliance.
The AGPL-3.0 License, Explained
AGPL-3.0 is the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 — GPLv3 with one added clause that closes the SaaS loophole, requiring source disclosure even when software is only used over a network, never distributed.
Open Source License Management: Tools and Workflow
A practical breakdown of how mature engineering teams do license management open source style: scanning dependency trees, classifying license risk, and building a workflow that does not slow releases down.
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.
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