• Academic Free License 3.0AFL-3.0PermissiveLawrence Rosen2005Lawrence Rosen — 2005 — A permissive license with explicit patent grant language, often discussed alongside OSL from the same author.
• Affero General Public License v1.0AGPL-1.0-onlyCopyleftAffero, Inc.2002Affero, Inc. — 2002 — The earlier network-focused Affero copyleft that inspired the GNU AGPL line.
• Apache License 2.0Apache-2.0PermissiveApache Software Foundation2004Apache Software Foundation — 2004 — A widely-used permissive license with an explicit patent grant, used across much of the open source ecosystem.
• Artistic License 2.0Artistic-2.0PermissivePerl Foundation / open source community2006Perl Foundation / open source community — 2006 — A flexible license balancing free redistribution with a structured approach to modified versions; common in Perl ecosystems.
• Boost Software License 1.0BSL-1.0PermissiveBoost community2003Boost community — 2003 — A short permissive license popular in C++ libraries because of its simplicity and explicit redistribution grant.
• BSD 2-Clause LicenseBSD-2-ClausePermissiveUniversity of California / BSD tradition1999University of California / BSD tradition — 1999 — A simple permissive BSD license with attribution and disclaimer, but without the advertising clause.
• BSD 3-Clause LicenseBSD-3-ClausePermissiveUniversity of California / BSD tradition1999University of California / BSD tradition — 1999 — The common modern BSD license with attribution, disclaimer and a non-endorsement clause.
• BSD 4-Clause LicenseBSD-4-ClausePermissiveUniversity of California / BSD tradition1980sUniversity of California / BSD tradition — 1980s — The historical BSD license variant including the old advertising clause; less convenient, but important to archive.
• BSD Zero Clause License0BSDPermissiveSPDX / community usage2016SPDX / community usage — 2016 — An extremely permissive “public-domain-like” BSD variant with essentially no conditions beyond warranty disclaimer.
• CeCILL 2.1CECILL-2.1CopyleftCEA / CNRS / INRIA2013CEA / CNRS / INRIA — 2013 — French free software copyleft license aligned with European law and intended to remain GPL-compatible.
• CeCILL-CCECILL-CWeak copyleftCEA / CNRS / INRIA2013CEA / CNRS / INRIA — 2013 — The library-oriented weak-copyleft branch of the CeCILL family, roughly parallel to LGPL-style use cases.
• Common Development and Distribution License 1.0CDDL-1.0Weak copyleftSun Microsystems / Oracle2004Sun Microsystems / Oracle — 2004 — File-based weak copyleft license derived from MPL 1.1, used by projects such as OpenZFS and Illumos descendants.
• Common Development and Distribution License 1.1CDDL-1.1Weak copyleftSun Microsystems / Oracle2005Sun Microsystems / Oracle — 2005 — Updated CDDL revision retaining the same general file-level weak-copyleft structure.
• Creative Commons Attribution 4.0CC-BY-4.0PermissiveCreative Commons2013Creative Commons — 2013 — The standard permissive license for cultural works, documentation and open data. Any use is allowed as long as the author is credited.
• Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0CC-BY-ND-4.0non-freeCreative Commons2013Creative Commons — 2013 — Allows redistribution with credit but forbids adaptations. Not a free-culture license; preserved here because many works depend on its exact text.
• Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0CC-BY-NC-4.0non-freeCreative Commons2013Creative Commons — 2013 — Allows sharing and adaptation for non-commercial purposes only. Not a free-culture license; preserved for the works that carry it.
• Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0non-freeCreative Commons2013Creative Commons — 2013 — The most restrictive Creative Commons license: redistribution only, non-commercial, no adaptations. Preserved for the works that carry it.
• Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0non-freeCreative Commons2013Creative Commons — 2013 — Non-commercial sharing and adaptation under the same terms. Not a free-culture license; preserved for the works that carry it.
• Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0CC-BY-SA-3.0CopyleftCreative Commons2007Creative Commons — 2007 — The previous ShareAlike generation, still carried by an enormous body of existing works — including years of Wikipedia history.
• Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0CC-BY-SA-4.0CopyleftCreative Commons2013Creative Commons — 2013 — Copyleft for cultural works: adaptations must be shared under the same terms. The license of Wikipedia and much of the free culture movement.