Apache License

Software Licenses

Books

Open Source
   Glossary
      Advertising Clause
      Compatible Licenses
      Copyleft
      Derivative Works
      Dual Licensing
      FLOSS
      FOSS
      Free Software
      Incompatible Licenses
      OSD
      OSI Certified
      OSS
      Permissive Licenses
      Viral Licenses
   Licenses
      AGPL
      Apache
      Apple
      Artistic
      BSD
      CDDL
      CPL
      EPL
      GPL v2
      GPL v3
      IPL
      LGPL
      MIT
      Mozilla
      SPL
      X License
      X11 License
   Organizations
      ASF
      FSF
      OSI
      SFLC
   People
      Bruce Perens
      Eben Moglen
      Eric Raymond
      Lawrence Lessig
      Linus Torvalds
      Richard Stallman

Proprietary
   Closed Source
   Freeware
   Shareware

Public Domain

Shared Source
   MS Community License
   MS Permissive License

Software Licenses > Open Source > Licenses > Apache

Apache License

The Apache License (previously known as the "Apache Software License") is a software licensed authored by the Apache Software Foundation ("ASF"). The license is used for all software produced by the ASF including the popular Apache Web Server software, but there are also at least 1,000 non-ASF projects which are also available under the Apache License.

The Apache License is quite a permissive license, and is not a copyleft license: it requires preservation of a copyright notice and a disclaimer, but allows use and distribution of the source code in both FLOSS and proprietary software.

There have been several revisions of the Apache License:

Apache Software License 1.0
Apache Software License 1.1 which was approved in 2000. The principle difference between 1.1 and 1.0, is in the license's advertising clause: whereas the 1.0 license required that derived products contain an attribution in their advertising material, the 1.1 license only requires attribution in their documentation.
Apache License 2.0 was approved by the ASF in early 2004, and its goals included making the license easier to apply, and easier for non-ASF projects to use. Additionally, this revision of the license aimed to require "a patent license on contributions that necessarily infringe a contributor's own patents". Furthermore, an attempt was made to make the license GPL compatible, although opinions differ on whether this was achieved or not:
- The Free Software Foundation considers all versions of the Apache License to be incompatible with the GPL Version 2. The argument is that patent termination clauses in the Apache License are the source of incompatibility.
- The Apache Software Foundation'd position is more complex: see their web site statement on Apache License v2.0 and GPL Compatibility for more information.
- Early drafts of the GPL Version 3 include patent retaliation clauses intended to make the licenses compatible.

Related Links

ThinkGeek - Cool Computing Stuff and Mods

This site is for general information only, and represents the opinions of the authors only. This site was NOT written, NOR reviewed, NOR vetted by lawyers. The content of this site is NOT intended as, NOR should be construed as, legal or professional advice. You should consult a lawyer, if you need a legal opinion or advice on any legal matter.

Copyright © 2007-2010, Answers 2000 Limited

CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.

Disclosure: Our company's websites' content (including this website's content) includes advertisements for our own company's websites, products, and services, and for other organization's websites, products, and services. In the case of links to other organization's websites, our company may receive a payment, (1) if you purchase products or services, or (2) if you sign-up for third party offers, after following links from this website. Unless specifically otherwise stated, information about other organization's products and services, is based on information provided by that organization, the product/service vendor, and/or publicly available information - and should not be taken to mean that we have used the product/service in question. Additionally, our company's websites contain some adverts which we are paid to display, but whose content is not selected by us, such as Google AdSense ads. For more detailed information, please see Advertising/Endorsements Disclosures

Privacy Terms of Use Advertising/Endorsements Disclosures

In Association With Amazon.com
All trademarks are property of their respective owners.
All third party content and adverts are copyright of their respective owners.