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The Apache License (Apache Software License previous to version 2.0) is a free-software license authored by the Apache Software Foundation
Apache Software Foundation

The Apache Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation to support Apache software projects, including the Apache HTTP Server. The ASF was formed from the Apache Group and Delaware corporation, USA, in June 1999....
 (ASF). The Apache License (versions 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0) requires preservation of the copyright
Copyright

Copyright is a form of intellectual property which gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation; after which time the work is said to enter the public domain....
 notice and disclaimer
Disclaimer

A disclaimer is generally any statement intended to specify or delimit the scope of rights and obligations that may be exercised and enforced by parties in a legally-recognized relationship....
, but it is not a copyleft
Copyleft

File:Copyleft.svgCopyleft is a Word play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of a work for others and requiring that the same freedoms be preserved in modified versions....
 license — it allows use of the source code for the development of free
Free software

Free Software or software libre is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with minimal restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things and to prevent consumer-facing hardware...
 and open source software as well as proprietary software
Proprietary software

Proprietary software is a term coined by advocates of the free software movement to describe computer software which is the legal property of one party....
.

All software produced by the ASF or any of its projects or subjects is licensed according to the terms of the Apache License.






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The Apache License (Apache Software License previous to version 2.0) is a free-software license authored by the Apache Software Foundation
Apache Software Foundation

The Apache Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation to support Apache software projects, including the Apache HTTP Server. The ASF was formed from the Apache Group and Delaware corporation, USA, in June 1999....
 (ASF). The Apache License (versions 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0) requires preservation of the copyright
Copyright

Copyright is a form of intellectual property which gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation; after which time the work is said to enter the public domain....
 notice and disclaimer
Disclaimer

A disclaimer is generally any statement intended to specify or delimit the scope of rights and obligations that may be exercised and enforced by parties in a legally-recognized relationship....
, but it is not a copyleft
Copyleft

File:Copyleft.svgCopyleft is a Word play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of a work for others and requiring that the same freedoms be preserved in modified versions....
 license — it allows use of the source code for the development of free
Free software

Free Software or software libre is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with minimal restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things and to prevent consumer-facing hardware...
 and open source software as well as proprietary software
Proprietary software

Proprietary software is a term coined by advocates of the free software movement to describe computer software which is the legal property of one party....
.

All software produced by the ASF or any of its projects or subjects is licensed according to the terms of the Apache License. Some non-ASF software is licensed using the Apache License as well: as of April 2008, over 3000 non-ASF projects located at SourceForge.net
SourceForge.net

SourceForge.net is a source code repository. It acts as a centralized location for software developers to control and manage open source software development....
 are available under the terms of the Apache License.

Version history


The Apache License 1.0 was the original Apache License which applies only to older versions of Apache packages (such as version 1.2 of the Web server).

The Apache License 1.1 was approved by the ASF in 2000: The primary change from the 1.0 license is in the 'advertising clause' (section 3 of the 1.0 license); derived products are no longer required to include attribution in their advertising materials, but only in their documentation.

The ASF approved an update to the Apache License 2.0 in January 2004. The stated goals of the license included making the license easier for non-ASF projects to use, improving compatibility
License compatibility

License compatibility refers to the problem with Software license which can contain contradictory requirements, rendering it impossible to combine source code from such packages in order to create new software packages....
 with GPL
GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public License is a widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. The GPL is the most popular and well-known example of the type of strong copyleft license that requires derived works to be available under the same copyleft....
-based software, allowing the license to be included by reference instead of listed in every file, clarifying the license on contributions, and requiring a patent license on contributions that necessarily infringe a contributor's own patents.

Licensing conditions


Like any free-software license, the Apache License allows the user of the software the freedom to use the software for any purpose, to distribute it, to modify it, and to distribute modified versions of the software.

The Apache License does not require modified versions
Derivative work

In copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major, copyright-protected elements of an original, previously created first work....
 of the software to be distributed using the same license nor even that it be distributed as free/open-source software. The Apache license only requires that a notice is kept informing recipients that Apache licensed code has been used. Thus, in contrast to copyleft
Copyleft

File:Copyleft.svgCopyleft is a Word play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of a work for others and requiring that the same freedoms be preserved in modified versions....
 licenses, recipients of modified versions of Apache licensed code do not necessarily also get the above freedoms.

Two files that must be put at the top directory of redistributed software packages:

  • LICENSE - a copy of the license itself.
  • NOTICE - A "notice" text document listing the names of licensed libraries used, together with their developers.


In every licensed file, any original copyright or patent notices in redistributed code must be preserved, and in every licensed file changed a notification must be added stating that changes have been made to that file.

GPL compatibility

The Apache Software Foundation and the Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to distribute and modify computer software without restriction....
 (FSF) agree that the Apache License 2.0 is a free software licence
Free software licence

A free software licence is a software license which grants recipients rights to modify and redistribute the software which would otherwise be prohibited by copyright law....
, compatible with version 3 of the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public License is a widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. The GPL is the most popular and well-known example of the type of strong copyleft license that requires derived works to be available under the same copyleft....
 (GPL).

However, the Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to distribute and modify computer software without restriction....
 considers all versions of the Apache License (as of 2007) to be incompatible
License compatibility

License compatibility refers to the problem with Software license which can contain contradictory requirements, rendering it impossible to combine source code from such packages in order to create new software packages....
 with the previous GPL versions 1 and 2. About version 2.0 of the Apache License, the FSF said "The Apache Software License is incompatible with the GPL because it has a specific requirement that is not in the GPL: it has certain patent termination cases that the GPL does not require. (We don't think those patent termination cases are inherently a bad idea, but nonetheless they are incompatible with the GNU GPL.)"

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