Free and open source software has become an integral part of the modern Internet era. Due to the threat posed by copyright laws sponsored by proprietary software publishers, the free software community has developed many software licenses to combat copyright and protect the developer. Many open source licenses have been used by developers to offer their programs to the community. Some of the most popular licenses are the Apache License, the GNU General Public License (GPL), and the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). Each of these licenses grants different rights to the licensor and the user of the license. Each license also has implications for the availability of the code to the future developer community. The GPL more strongly encourages the pursuit of "decentralization of individual work" as described by Yochai Benkler (Benkler, 2006) than the Apache License. While the GPL most closely embraces the idea of ​​free and open source software, the Apache License allows proprietary software and open source software to coexist in the context of the modern era of the Internet. The Apache license constitutes a positive link between the world of free software and that of proprietary software. The most popular free software license, the GPL (Metz, 2012), is a free software license developed by Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation. The GPL is a restrictive license that Stallman called "copyleft" because it protects against copyright and encourages developer collaboration. The main feature of the GPL is the stipulation that when someone modifies a program and makes it public, the source code for that program must be licensed under the GPL. The source code must also be freely accessible to users of...... middle of paper ......ion, The. (nd). About us » LibreOffice. Retrieved from http://www.libreoffice.org/about-us/Free Software Foundation. (nd). Why you shouldn't use the lower GPL for your next library. Retrieved from http://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-not-lgpl.htmlMetz, C. (February 15, 2012). Open source people are abandoning the software religion out of simple common sense. Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/02/cloudera-and-apache/Sally. (October 14, 2011). The basic Apache software declaration at Apache OpenOffice.org. Retrieved from http://blogs.apache.org/foundation/entry/the_apache_software_foundation_statementWilson, R. (November 2005). The Apache License (v2) – An overview. Retrieved from http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/apache2.xmlWilson, R. (November 2005). The GNU General Public License v2 – An overview. Retrieved from http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/gpl.xml