Open Source Community License - Type C

Community Type

Open Source Community License - Type C: Plain Text | RTF

This license is our least restrictive license that requries derivative work to be open source as well. Unlike our type R license this license does not restrict the execution of the binaries. This license is similar to the gpl, however it uses the Authors' Recursive License to manage the viral nature usually assoiated with the gpl. It is essentially the best of gpl-like licenses combined with the advatntages of the bsd-like license, without the viral nature, or the ability for corperate entities to steal the work.

Some of this license's most notable features are:

Share alike - Any copies or derivatives of this work must make the source availible whenever the program is distributed, and this license must carry over. This ensures that except for the copyright holders anyone who modifies the source has to make it open, unless they only plan to use the modifications for themselves. This is the same approach the gpl takes, and one reason it is so popular.
Unrestricted Execution - All copies of the executable are free to be run for any legal purpose. This essentially allows companies to run a program and make money off of it, as well as individuals. This is also the same approach the gpl and BSD takes in its licenses.
Keep Attribution - You cant remove any copyright notices or references to the license when the source. This prevents someone from redistributing the source and giving someone the impression it was their own. Which in turn prevents the receiver from using the source code as if it didnt have any of these restrictions due to ignorance of them. Both the Bsd license and the GPL, as well as most others, have this requirement.
Authors' Recursive License - This is the most unique quality of the oscl licenses. It is a special sublicense with fewer restrictions on it that are only shared amongst certain authors of the program. When someone modifies a portion of the code any part of the code that his code had to depend on (for example calling functions) is governed by this authors' recursive license and is given only to the owner of the code's dependency. So if someone writes some code for the base of a program the individual receives an authors' recurrsive license from everyone else who contributes to his code; it also cascades to every intermidiate authors. This provides greater incentive for people to contribute. Especially when a company may own the proprietary wrights to already written aplications. The Authors' recursive license affordssa similar rights as a BSD license, in that it is unrestrictive. The holder of such a license is allowed to rerelease their portion of code under proprietary license or for resale.