Open-Source Software at UIC

Open Source is a license to source code that requires no signatures, requires source code to be published and allows licensees to copy, modify and distribute code with no fees but may impose restrictions on how the software can be distributed.

What do I do if I am interested in Open Source for a project developed by a UIC employee?

Before the code is made available to others, due diligence is needed to determine if the University has the appropriate rights to distribute the software.

We recommend you contact us at commercializeotm@otm.uic.edu or fill out an Invention Disclosure so that we can help determine ownership and decide on the right license and repository for the code.

As a reminder, the University owns software that was developed by a University employee as a result of the employee’s duties or through the use of University resources such as facilities, equipment or funds.

How else can the OTM help?

In some cases, we can promote your work on our website of available technology.

Visit https://choosealicense.com to review some of the commonly used options and tradeoffs.

What about copyrights? What do I need to do to copyright software I wrote?

Nothing. Copyright is automatic upon creation of software.

How do I tell others that the code is copyright protected?

Place the following in your source code file:

Other resources on Open Source:

Guide to Open Source Licenses- Helpful explanations and definitions regarding Open Source.

Open Source Initiative- Standards for Open Source.

Tl;drLegal- Software licenses presented in plain, easy-to-comprehend language.

If you have additional questions, feel free to reach out to Marty Vander Velde at Martyv@otm.uic.edu.