Open Source Licensing for Developers: Avoiding Legal Landmines

Developers use open-source code every day, but very few understand the legal implications behind licenses.

In this talk, we break down the most common open-source licenses — MIT, Apache 2.0, and GPL — from a developer’s perspective. Through real examples from GitHub projects and startups, we’ll explore what you can legally do with open-source code, where companies often make mistakes, and how to choose the right license for your own project.

• Understand the differences between common licenses like MIT License, Apache License 2.0, and GNU General Public License.

• Learn what developers can legally do when using open-source code in personal or commercial projects.

• Identify common licensing mistakes such as mixing incompatible licenses or missing attribution.

• Gain a simple framework to choose the right license for your own open-source project.

• Discover basic tools and practices to check license compliance in dependencies.