Open Source Compliance
OSI License Reference
Search OSI-approved licenses by name or SPDX identifier. Each result shows license type (permissive, copyleft), GPL compatibility, patent clause presence, and FSF freedom status.
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About this tool
OSI License Reference
The OSI License Reference is a searchable index of all OSI-approved licenses with type, GPL compatibility, patent clause, and FSF freedom status.
• Find all OSI-approved permissive licenses compatible with GPL-3.0
• Check whether a license has an explicit patent grant before accepting a dependency
• Look up the difference between GPL-2.0-only and GPL-2.0-or-later compatibility
• Find OSI-approved network copyleft licenses for evaluating AGPL alternatives
Next step
npm License Auditor — Audit npm package licenses for compliance risk before adding dependencies.
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FAQ
What does this tool tell you?
The OSI License Reference is a searchable index of all OSI-approved licenses with type, GPL compatibility, patent clause, and FSF freedom status.
What affects the result most?
All OSI-approved licenses with SPDX identifier, short name, and approval date. Categorized by type: permissive, weak copyleft, strong copyleft, network copyleft. FSF freedom status: whether the Free Software Foundation considers the license a free software license.
How should I use the result?
Use this tool to orient quickly to the concepts, field names, or values you are about to look up in a full specification or vendor documentation. It summarizes the common cases; the authoritative source remains whichever standard or vendor doc defines the values themselves.
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