What Software License Is Appropriate If You Don'T Care What Other People Do With Your Code And Data, As Long As They Just Cite Your Work?

Question

[Andra Waagmeester]

I am aware of a similar question on Biostar and I really like the crapl license proposed in there.

The question I now have is if there exists a license that is quite permissive (just do what you want with the code) but explicitly requires citations or acknowledgments of the initial project from where the code/data originates.

[Thaman]

There are other discussion regarding this As A Grad Student, Who Owns My Code? , Releasing Software Under Multiple Licenses and one you mentioned!

[ugly.betty77]

I would pick MIT or BSD licence. Very simple and straightforward.

If you do not want credit, try Don't be a Dick license -

http://www.dbad-license.org/

Answer 1

[Michael]

Also, look here: http://ask.slashdot.org/story/08/09/20/1413232/Open-Source-Licenses-For-Academic-Work

This discussion contains a lot of different aspects on the topic. I would believe such a license would be nifty but almost impossible to enforce. Some academic open source softwares have build in citation() functions or mention the citation in the readme or about.

Answer 2

[Andra Waagmeester]

Sorry, bad question. I found the answer to this question in a comment by Daniel Swan on the earlier mentioned Biostar question.