Open-Source Licensing

osi-approved-license

Friendly FHIR is fully committed to the principles of open-source software.

This document outlines the licensing policy for repositories within the organization.

Licensing

Unless otherwise specified, all repositories within the Friendly FHIR organization are dual-licensed under both the MIT License and the Apache License, Version 2.0, at the user's discretion.

Why Dual Licensing?

Dual licensing simply means offering the same software under two different licenses. What this practically means is that user's can choose the license that best fits their legal or business needs. Providing more tha one license just offers better flexibility that can support both individual users and organization requirements.

As for why these two licenses in particular:

  • MIT License -- this is a simple and permissive license that's tried and true in the industry. It allows anyone to use, copy, modify, and distribute the software with minimal restrictions. Overall, it's easy to understand and very business-friendly.

  • Apache 2 License: Provides similar freedoms as the MIT license but includes explicit terms for patent rights and a requirement to state any changes made to the code. This helps protect contributors and ensures transparency.

License Files

Each repository, unless licensed differently, will already be set up with both licenses in the root of the repository -- available as LICENSE-MIT and LICENSE-APACHE.