Generate licenses for open source projects

Generating licenses for open source projects involves selecting the appropriate license that suits the goals of your project, then creating the license file with the correct legal text. Here’s a guide to common open source licenses and example license texts you can use directly or customize.

Popular Open Source Licenses

1. MIT License

   • Permissive, simple, allows commercial use, modification, distribution, private use.

   • Requires inclusion of the original license and copyright notice.

2. Apache License 2.0

   • Permissive, also provides explicit patent rights.

   • Requires preservation of license, notices, and a NOTICE file if you include one.

3. GNU General Public License (GPL) v3.0

   • Strong copyleft license: derivatives must also be open source under GPL.

   • Requires source disclosure.

4. BSD 3-Clause License

   • Permissive with minimal restrictions, similar to MIT but with a no-endorsement clause.

5. Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL)

   • Weak copyleft: source files modified must remain under MPL, but can be combined with other licenses.

Example License Templates

MIT License

text
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MIT License

Copyright (c) [year] [fullname]

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

Apache License 2.0

text
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                                 Apache License
                           Version 2.0, January 2004
                        http://www.apache.org/licenses/

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION

[Full license text can be found at the URL above.]

Copyright [year] [fullname]

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

GPL v3.0 License

text
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                    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
                       Version 3, 29 June 2007

Copyright (C) [year] [fullname]

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

[Full license text available at https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html]

How to Add a License to Your Project

1. Choose the license based on your project goals.

2. Create a file named LICENSE or LICENSE.txt in your project root.

3. Paste the appropriate license text.

4. Replace placeholders like [year] and [fullname] with the current year and your name or organization.

5. If applicable, add a brief note in your README.md referencing the license.

If you want, I can generate a full LICENSE file for a specific license and details you provide. Just share the license type, your name, and year!