Copyright and Licensing
Your rights as a creator
When sharing your work, it is important to understand the rights you have as a creator and balance your professional goals and hopes with any permission restrictions or sharing policies imposed by the publisher, funder, or people you collaborate with. Copyright in everything you create (articles, software, digital projects) is fully yours automatically, and when you share the work a license provides clarity on how your work can be used and how it should be credited to you.
Creative Commons licenses are commonly used with publications and data, whereas software licensing has a wider range of opportunities.
Creative Commons
MIT and GNU General Public
If you want to license software, the MIT License and the GNU General Public License are both good options. The main difference is that the MIT License allows the distributing of closed-source versions, and the GNU License does not.
Other Licenses
GitHub's Choose a License tool and Choose a License reference table are good resources for learning about other types of licenses.
The Open Knowledge Center is happy to review publishing contracts for negotiable elements or discuss your licensing options, and you can read more about our services for publishing and copyright guidance.