LicensesUnlicense
Public Domain StyleOSI Approved
The Unlicense
A public-domain-style dedication with a permissive fallback, optimized for maximum reuse and minimum barriers.
Use when you want to waive as much control as practical and keep legal ceremony near zero.
Family
Public Domain Style
Reciprocity
None
Patent Grant
Not explicit
Closed Source
Allowed
What It Lets You Do
- Commercial use, private use, modification, redistribution, and relicensing.
- Near-total freedom of reuse.
What It Requires
- Operational obligations are minimal, but some teams still preserve the text and disclaimer.
Advantages
- Maximum freedom and almost no friction.
- Great for educational code or non-strategic utilities.
Tradeoffs
- Can be harder to approve than MIT in conservative organizations.
- Less conventional for commercial supply-chain policy teams.
Restrictions And Gotchas
- Public-domain-style dedications are interpreted differently across jurisdictions.
- Some organizations prefer more conventional licenses.
- No express patent grant.