Black Duck Software has compiled the industries's most comprehensive KnowledgeBase of open source components, used to identify and provide information about the content of software and associated licenses. Each day we extract related license information and present the data below.
Top 20 Most Commonly Used Licenses in Open Source Projects
The table below illustrates the top 20 licenses that are used in open source projects, according to the Black Duck Software KnowledgeBase. This data is updated daily.
Please click on a license name for more information.
The table and chart below depicts the number of projects that are using GPLv3, LGPLv3 and AGPLv3 today (Released). The numbers depicted are accumulated month to month. The data is updated daily and the current month's statistics are to date only.
Planned
Released
GPLv3 + LGPLv3 + AGPLv3
GPLv3
LGPLv3
AGPLv3
Jun '07
9
84
8
4
Jul '07
24
202
18
4
Aug '07
40
395
43
4
Sep '07
55
593
65
4
Oct '07
70
812
75
4
Nov '07
76
1068
95
7
Dec '07
77
1298
113
14
Jan '08
89
1615
132
19
Feb '08
100
1989
146
30
Mar '08
106
2357
164
34
Apr '08
112
2754
186
46
May '08
120
3237
211
54
Jun '08
122
3713
236
61
Jul '08
127
4143
261
79
Aug '08
136
4561
282
87
Sep '08
140
5023
304
95
Oct '08
141
5510
323
101
Nov '08
142
5952
342
115
Dec '08
143
6393
358
120
Jan '09
144
6807
382
131
Feb '09
147
7254
399
138
Mar '09
149
7780
430
145
Apr '09
155
8287
458
154
May '09
159
8898
485
165
Jun '09
160
9384
514
172
Jul '09
162
9785
538
179
Aug '09
162
10138
558
182
Sep '09
219
10457
576
186
Oct '09
223
10781
596
192
Nov '09
225
11142
618
197
Dec '09
227
11472
646
201
Jan '10
230
11767
660
205
Feb '10
232
11995
679
216
Mar '10
232
12232
700
233
Apr '10
232
12429
720
240
May '10
233
12616
745
251
Jun '10
233
12750
782
266
Jul '10
233
12982
810
285
Aug '10
235
13182
852
308
Sep '10
235
13183
853
308
Most recent Projects To Convert to GPLv3, LGPLv3 or AGPLv3
This table highlights the 10 most recent projects to be converted to GPLv3, LGPLv3 or AGPLv3 and is updated daily.
On Friday June 29th 2007, the Free Software Foundation announced the release of GPL (General Public License), version 3. This much anticipated version is the sequel to the commonly used GPLv2.
GPLv3, like GPLv2, is a copyleft license. Copyleft essentially achieves the opposite of copyright in that copyleft supports access to source code and not the protection of code as private property. At the heart of a copyleft license is the reciprocity obligation. Reciprocity means that, if you create a work "based on” GPL’d software and you distribute the resulting work, then you have to distribute the resulting work under the GPL. In other words, you are required to give the user the source code for the work and all of the rights to modify and distribute the code that you received under the GPL.
LGPLv3, the “Lesser General Public License” contains the same terms as the GPLv3, but gives additional permissions to those who wish to re-distribute code. The LGPLv3 is designed to allow the combination of Copyleft code with non-Copyleft code in certain situations.
The GNU Affero General Public License version 3 (GNU AGPLv3) extends the GPLv3 license by giving end-users access to the source code for software accessed over a network.
When GPL and AGPLv3 code is combined for use over a network (e.g. in a website), all the combined source code must now be made available to its end-users, allowing them to make modifications to the code. This new license is important for companies that offer web-based solutions and also for organizations that provide software for their clients to use over the web (such as online banking software).