Software licenses, explained without the legalese
What each open source license actually permits, what it costs you, and which choices you cannot undo.
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How to add a license to a GitHub repository
How to add a license to a new or existing GitHub repository, change it, use more than one, and what having no license actually means.
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Open source licenses compared
MIT, BSD, Apache, GPL, LGPL, AGPL and MPL compared on what each actually requires, and which choices cannot be undone.
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Software license types
The four families of software license, what each one permits, and where source-available and dual licensing fit.
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Copyleft, explained: the one condition that splits open source in two
What copyleft requires, the difference between strong, weak and network copyleft, what triggers it, and why enterprise policies ban some of it.
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Dual licensing: the same code under two licences
How dual licensing works, why it needs a CLA, how it differs from open core and source-available, and what it shares with licensing code to AI labs.
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Proprietary software licences: what they withhold, and how to write one
What a proprietary licence grants and withholds, the standard terms, a minimal clause list for licensing your own software, and where it sits against open source.
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The Unlicense: dedicating code to the public domain
What the Unlicense does, how it differs from MIT and CC0, why the fallback clause exists, and when it is the right choice.
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Your MIT-licensed repo is worth nothing to AI labs. Your private ones are not.
What the MIT license permits, what it costs you, and why permissively licensed public code has no licensing value left.
Earn $500+ on every repo you never open.
Private, finished, owned by you: $500+ each to AI labs.
Non-exclusive, so you keep the code and are paid again on every re-license.