< legal > Any document that attempts to specify open source usage and distribution of software. These licenses are usually drafted by experts and are likely to be more legally sound than one a programmer could write. However, loopholes do exist.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of open source licenses:
1. Public Domain - No license.
2. BSD License - An early open source license
3. General Public License (GPL) - The copyleft license of the Free Software Foundation . Used for GNU software and much of Linux .
4. Artistic License Less restrictive than the GPL, permitted by Perl in addition to the GPL.
5. Mozilla Public Licenses . (MPL, MozPL) and Netscape Public License (NPL).
["Open Sources", pub. O'Reilly, full text ].
(1999-11-28)