Apache License

Home: Software Licenses

Articles

Copyright Issues
Open Source & Derivative Works

GPL Issues
GPL Validity
GPL Violations
WordPress & the GPL

Legal Cases
ProCD v. Zeidenberg
USL v. BSDi

Glossary

Advertising Clause
Click-Through License
Compatible Licenses
Copyleft
Derivative Works
Dual Licensing
EULA
FLOSS
FOSS
Free Software
Incompatible Licenses
OSD
OSI Certified
OSS
Permissive Licenses
Shrink Wrap License
Viral Licenses

Open Source

Licenses
   AGPL
   Apache
   Apple
   Artistic
   BSD
   CDDL
   CPL
   EPL
   GPL v2
   GPL v3
   IPL
   LGPL
   MIT
   Mozilla
   SPL
   X License
   X11 License

Organizations
   ASF
   FSF
   OSI
   SFLC

People
   Bruce Perens
   Eben Moglen
   Eric Raymond
   Lawrence Lessig
   Linus Torvalds
   Richard Stallman

Proprietary Licenses

Licenses
   Closed Source
   Freeware
   Shareware

Organizations
   BSA

Shared Source Licenses

MS Community License
MS Permissive License

Uncopyrighted

Public Domain

Further Reading

Books

Software Licenses > Open Source > Licenses > Apache

Apache License

The Apache License (previously known as the "Apache Software License") is a software licensed authored by the Apache Software Foundation ("ASF"). The license is used for all software produced by the ASF including the popular Apache Web Server software, but there are also at least 1,000 non-ASF projects which are also available under the Apache License.

The Apache License is quite a permissive license, and is not a copyleft license: it requires preservation of a copyright notice and a disclaimer, but allows use and distribution of the source code in both FLOSS and proprietary software.

There have been several revisions of the Apache License:

Apache Software License 1.0
Apache Software License 1.1 which was approved in 2000. The principle difference between 1.1 and 1.0, is in the license's advertising clause: whereas the 1.0 license required that derived products contain an attribution in their advertising material, the 1.1 license only requires attribution in their documentation.
Apache License 2.0 was approved by the ASF in early 2004, and its goals included making the license easier to apply, and easier for non-ASF projects to use. Additionally, this revision of the license aimed to require "a patent license on contributions that necessarily infringe a contributor's own patents". Furthermore, an attempt was made to make the license GPL compatible, although opinions differ on whether this was achieved or not:
- The Free Software Foundation considers all versions of the Apache License to be incompatible with the GPL Version 2. The argument is that patent termination clauses in the Apache License are the source of incompatibility.
- The Apache Software Foundation'd position is more complex: see their web site statement on Apache License v2.0 and GPL Compatibility for more information.
- Early drafts of the GPL Version 3 include patent retaliation clauses intended to make the licenses compatible.

Related Links

Open Source
Open Source Licenses

Discuss Apache License
Please feel free to post your comments:

Facebook Comments:

Train For Linux
Online Linux Training Site. A Membership Site With A Mix Of Video And Other Training Materials. Membership Never Expires!

This site is for general information only, and represents the opinions of the authors only. This site was NOT written, NOR reviewed, NOR vetted by lawyers. The content of this site is NOT intended as, NOR should be construed as, legal or professional advice. You should consult a lawyer, if you need a legal opinion or advice on any legal matter.

Copyright © 2007-2020, Answers 2000 Limited

CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE,COMES FROM AMAZON EU S.� r.l. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.

Disclosure: Our company's websites' content (including this website's content) includes advertisements for our own company's websites, products, and services, and for other organization's websites, products, and services. In the case of links to other organization's websites, our company may receive a payment, (1) if you purchase products or services, or (2) if you sign-up for third party offers, after following links from this website. Unless specifically otherwise stated, information about other organization's products and services, is based on information provided by that organization, the product/service vendor, and/or publicly available information - and should not be taken to mean that we have used the product/service in question. Additionally, our company's websites contain some adverts which we are paid to display, but whose content is not selected by us, such as Google AdSense ads. For more detailed information, please see Advertising/Endorsements Disclosures

Our sites use cookies, some of which may already be set on your computer. Use of our site constitutes consent for this. For details, please see Privacy.

Click privacy for information about our company's privacy, data collection and data retention policies, and your rights.

Contact Us Privacy Terms of Use Advertising/Endorsements Disclosures

In Association With Amazon.com
Answers 2000 Limited is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
In Association With Amazon.co.uk
Answers 2000 Limited is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk.
As an Amazon Associate, our company earns from qualifying purchases. Amazon, the Amazon logo, Endless, and the Endless logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

All trademarks are property of their respective owners.
All third party content and adverts are copyright of their respective owners.