The Whys and Hows of Licensing Scientific Code

"This post will cover a lot of ground, but if you only take three pieces of information away from the article, let them be these:

1. Always license your code.  Unlicensed code is closed code, so any open license is better than none (but see #2).
2. Always use a GPL-compatible license. GPL-compatible licenses ensure broad compatibility for your code, and include GPL, new BSD, MIT, and others (but see #3).
3. Always use a permissive, BSD-style license. A permissive license such as new BSD or MIT is preferable to a copyleft license such as GPL or LGPL.

This list progresses from widely accepted to increasingly more contentious. I can’t claim my advice is sound for every possible situation. But for scientific researchers sharing their own code, I stand behind the recommendations. Below I’ll do my best to convince you why."