Choosing open source license flowchart This is a common question when one wants to publish a new open source project, especially if he/she is new to open source licensing scheme. The many available choices of the license can be very confusing and many people simply pick a license without really understanding the meaning or the clauses in the license. Some choose a license by the popularity. Some because a particular license is used in their favorite projects. Even worse, some even choose a license because it looks or sounds cool.

There are many resources on the Web that provide comparison of the available licenses. I want to make it simpler by creating a flowchart to guide you to pick the right license for your project. To reduce confusion, I’ll only list the most common open source licenses. You can click on the flowchart to enlarge it.