[Verse 1] Sarah found some code online, thought it looked so neat Downloaded it and shipped it fast, her project was complete But then the lawyers came around with papers in their hand Said "You've got a license mess that we don't understand" [Chorus] Check the license, read the terms GPL and MIT, learn what each one confirms Attribution, share-alike, copyleft or free Open source compliance keeps your company legally free Check the license, know the rules Compatible combinations are your governance tools [Verse 2] MIT says "do what you want, just keep my name in sight" Apache gives you patents too, protects you from a fight But GPL says "if you change me, share your code back out" And AGPL covers servers, removes all doubt [Chorus] Check the license, read the terms GPL and MIT, learn what each one confirms Attribution, share-alike, copyleft or free Open source compliance keeps your company legally free Check the license, know the rules Compatible combinations are your governance tools [Bridge] Strong copyleft spreads its terms to everything around Weak copyleft keeps it tight, to just the code you found Permissive licenses play nice with proprietary code But mixing GPL with others? That's a bumpy road [Verse 3] Build a process, scan your code, keep inventory clean Document every license choice, know what dependencies mean Train your team on what to do when adding something new Open source governance will see your project through [Chorus] Check the license, read the terms GPL and MIT, learn what each one confirms Attribution, share-alike, copyleft or free Open source compliance keeps your company legally free Check the license, know the rules Compatible combinations are your governance tools [Outro] When in doubt, ask legal counsel, better safe than sorry Open source is powerful, but compliance is your worry
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