Project Licenser

A tool that helps you pick a license for your project.

About Project Licenser

Project Licenser was started in 2020 (5781) by software engineer Rachel Michaela Bradley. Frustrated by both the lack of functionality and the complexity of other websites that provide software and cultural licensing recommendations, she set about creating a foolproof tool to provide recommendations from a curated and modest array of licenses.

Project Licenser is free software. Both the content and the source code are released under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3.0. You are free to copy, distribute, modify, and sell this software under the terms of the license. You can contribute to this project via the GitHub repository.

The full list of licenses currently implemented by the tool is available in the README file located in the GitHub repository, along with a diagrammatic representation of the decision tree in the DIAGRAM.PNG file.

Recommendation Process

If you would like to add new questions, licenses, or other material to this project, please follow the procedure below.

  1. Evaluate the README file to see whether or not your suggestion has already been implemented;
  2. Create an issue on the GitHub repository proposing your change. Alternatively, you may submit a pull request subject to transferal of intellectual property rights, as described by the README file;
  3. If your idea is approved, it will be added to the project. The website will be updated shortly after the idea is implemented.

Your suggestion does not have to be compatible with any particular license, although new licenses should have an associated question to help separate it from the existing options. Licenses are chosen by their merit and present use, not their compatibility with other licenses or the free software and free culture movements.

Data Sources

  1. Free Software Foundation (n.d.), "Various Licenses and Comments about Them", [ONLINE].
    Available at https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html.
  2. GitHub, Inc (n.d.), "Appendix", Choose a License, [ONLINE].
    Available at https://choosealicense.com/appendix/.
  3. Open Source Initiative (n.d.), "Open Source Licenses by Category", [ONLINE].
    Available at https://opensource.org/licenses/category.
  4. OSS Watch (n.d.), "License differentiator", [ONLINE].
    Available at http://oss-watch.ac.uk/apps/licdiff/.
  5. Wikimedia Foundation (22nd October, 2020), "Comparison of free and open-source software licences", Wikipedia, [ONLINE].
    Available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_and_open-source_software_licences.

Project Licenser ("the tool") is not a substitute for legal advice. Whilst we endeavour to ensure that the information provided by the tool is accurate, we cannot and will not guarantee the legal standing or ramifications of any statement made. The creator of Project Licenser is not a legal professional in any jurisdiction, and use of this tool does not enter the user and the author into an attorney-client relationship. Consult a legal professional in your jurisdiction that is familiar with copyright law before following a recommendation provided by this tool. We are not liable for any decisions you make based on the results provided by this tool.