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The readingA sheet every week

Kept for readers

The License Binder

Notes on the licenses that share code, read clause by clause

A sheet every week

A binder open on a wooden desk beside a stack of printed license texts, a fountain pen, sticky index tabs protruding from the pages, warm office light
The binder open at the definitions part, where every visit starts Photograph: June Marlowe

The License Doesn't Cover the Name

A software license is a copyright instrument. The project's name and logo are usually trademarks, governed by a separate policy, and that gap has split code from its own brand more than once.

A reader's binder on the culture of software licensing: the texts drafted to share source code while keeping it sustainable, from open source to collaborative source, shared source and the source-available family.

Open the latest sheetThe whole binder

Sheets kept in the binder

7

The clause index

Fourteen sheets in four parts, numbered like the clauses of an instrument.

  1. The definitions

    1. When Two Licenses Can't Be Combined
    2. The Ten Point Definition, Clause by Clause
    3. How a License Reads When You Open It
    4. What Copyleft Actually Promises
    5. The Permissive Side of the Shelf

  2. The models

    1. The Contribute or Pay Idea, Revisited
    2. The License That Waits to Open
    3. Two Licenses, One Codebase
    4. The Open Core Bargain

  3. The community

    1. The License Doesn't Cover the Name
    2. Who Signs the Contributor Agreement
    3. The People Who Keep the Code
    4. What a Foundation Actually Holds

  4. The record

    1. When the Cloud Changed the Terms
    2. The Essay That Came Before the License
    3. The Shared Source Era, on the Record

Also kept in the binder

The older sheets stay in the binder, earliest issues included.

The four parts of the binder

The binder is kept under four dividers, busiest first.

  1. The definitions what the texts actually promise: the recitals, the clauses and the anatomy of a license 5 sheets
  2. The models the business shapes of shared code: dual licensing, open core, contribute-or-pay, the source-available family 4 sheets
  3. The community the people who sign: contributor agreements, foundations, governance and who benefits 4 sheets
  4. The record the episodes on file: the essay that came first, the shared source era and the relicensing wave 3 sheets

Addresses worth the detour

A short list of external pages our editors find useful and reliable.

Accepted and agreedSigned this 06/10/2026