Step 3: Choose and Apply a Common License
Each project must have a clear and simple license that enables legal collaboration. A license lays out the rights and responsibilities of software developers and users. If the project is to be an OSS project, be sure to choose a well-known pre-existing OSS license, one that has already been widely certified as being OSS. It should be General Public License (GPL)-compatible, as the GPL is the most common OSS license. If the software pre-exists, it is usually wise to include its previous license as one of the options.