The Apache Software License

Everything in this book is covered by the Apache Software License 2.0 (except FreeMarker, which is covered by a similar BSD-style license). All developers who touch open source should be familiar with the various licenses and come to their own conclusions; most importantly, you should become familiar with the Apache license (and other BSD-style licenses) and how it differs from the GNU General Public License (GPL) and GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). Read the Apache Software License 2.0 at http://www.apache.org/licenses/.

I am not a lawyer (IANAL), but I would urge you to learn as much as you can about these licenses before you start to use them. For more information about open source, and for a comprehensive list of licenses, see the Open Source Initiative (OSI) at http://www.opensource.org. The Apache license does not place restrictions on people or organizations that wish to redistribute the software it covers, and, in general, the Apache license creates fewer licensing headaches for individuals and organizations that want to incorporate open source software into a commercial product.

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