========================
 Licensing requirements
========================

Official OpenStack projects need to follow a number of rules when it comes
to licensing.

In order to be considered for inclusion in the
:ref:`tag-tc-approved-release`, the project must be licensed under `Apache
License, Version 2.0`_ (ASLv2).

.. _Apache License, Version 2.0: http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

**OpenStack projects and libraries produced under the Big Tent**
should generally be licensed under ASLv2, and otherwise must be
licensed under a license supported by the `Contributor License
Agreement`_ (CLA) which allows redistribution by the OpenStack
Foundation under ASLv2 (currently only the MIT and both forms of the
BSD license meet this requirement). In particular, service projects
are recommended to *always* pick ASLv2 so that they may be included in
the TC-approved release in the future.

.. _Contributor License Agreement: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/How_To_Contribute#Contributor_License_Agreement

In order to be acceptable as dependencies of OpenStack projects,
**external libraries** (produced and published by 3rd-party developers)
must be licensed under an `OSI-approved license`_ that does not restrict
distribution of the consuming project. The list of acceptable licenses
includes ASLv2, BSD (both forms), MIT, PSF, LGPL, ISC, and MPL. Licenses
considered incompatible with this requirement include GPLv2, GPLv3, and AGPL.

**Projects run as part of the OpenStack Infrastructure** (in order to
*produce* OpenStack software) may be licensed under any `OSI-approved license`_.

.. _OSI-approved license: http://opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical

Other licenses (not explicitly listed in this document) may be considered
in the future on a case-by-case basis by the Technical Committee, with the
help of the OpenStack Foundation legal counsel.