When I started working at my own company, I’ve learned a lot of things related to code and the aspects that surround it. One of those aspects is the code license. As a software and game developer company, we used a lot of open-source code/libs, so I had to learn what a license was and how it could affect our project.

In a short and simple statement, a license informs how a piece of code can be used and what happens to your software after you use it. Investigating about licenses, quickly I’ve realized that some licenses allow you to use that code in commercial projects, while other forbid that. I also learned that if no license is used, it means trouble, because the author can claim that code at any time, putting your software in a delicate situation.

I always try to check the license of the libs I add to As3GameGears. I do my best to find the license and make it explicit, but sometime that’s a hard task. Not to mention that some developers don’t use a license at all. That’s why I got really excited when I saw choosealicense.com, a website made by Github folks to help you choose a license.

There you can find a lot of information about popular open-source licenses, such as what is permitted, what is required and what is forbidden when you use that license. If you are a developer and released something (any code, even the smallest one), please, pick a license.