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Open source license descriptions and metadata

Back in September we added open source licenses to repository overview pages. Now, when you view a repository’s license, we’ll tell you a bit more about it. If a project…

Screenshot of babel/babel license overview
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Back in September we added open source licenses to repository overview pages. Now, when you view a repository’s license, we’ll tell you a bit more about it.

If a project is licensed under a popular open source license like MIT, Apache, or GPL, you’ll see a brief description of the license, along with an overview of what you can and can’t do with the project.

Interested in incorporating the license metadata in your own project? The license descriptions and metadata are themselves open source, pulled from choosealicense.com and made available via the license API.

We hope the additional license metadata helps you make informed choices, but please keep in mind that we’re not lawyers (at least most of us aren’t). If you have any questions regarding the right license for your code or any other legal issues relating to it, of course, it’s always best to consult with a professional.

Happy open source licensing!

Written by

Ben Balter

Ben Balter

@benbalter

Ben Balter is Chief of Staff for Security at GitHub, the world’s largest software development platform. Previously, as a Staff Technical Program manager for Enterprise and Compliance, Ben managed GitHub’s on-premises and SaaS enterprise offerings, and as the Senior Product Manager overseeing the platform’s Trust and Safety efforts, Ben shipped more than 500 features in support of community management, privacy, compliance, content moderation, product security, platform health, and open source workflows to ensure the GitHub community and platform remained safe, secure, and welcoming for all software developers. Before joining GitHub’s Product team, Ben served as GitHub’s Government Evangelist, leading the efforts to encourage more than 2,000 government organizations across 75 countries to adopt open source philosophies for code, data, and policy development.

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