Plugin Licenses

Licenses are important, they protect the authors work and give you as a user certain guarantees and limitations. It's important to know what you can and can't do with a plugin, such as redistributing it, modifying it, or using it in a commercial context. Another developer might want to continue development of an abandoned plugin, but if he is allowed depends on the license. This page gives you an overview over the different licenses that plugins use.

Licenses are extracted from LICENSE file in each plugin repository. The license text is then compared to a set of known licenses to determine the license. This process uses similarity matching, so the result may not be accurate.

License Usage

The following chart shows the distribution of licenses in the plugins.

not found means that a no license file was found in the repository. Obsidian requires a license file to be present for new plugins, but this is not enforced retroactively.

unknown means that a license file was found, but the license could not be identified.

Licenses that are used by more than 100 plugins are excluded from the chart below.

License Terms

The following charts show the distribution of license terms in the plugins. The terms are based on the licenses shown in the charts above.

Permissions

A number of plugins give the following permissions.

Commercial use: The licensed material and derivatives may be used for commercial purposes.

Modification: The licensed material may be modified.

Distribution: The licensed material may be distributed.

Private use: The licensed material may be used and modified in private.

Patent use: This license provides an express grant of patent rights from contributors.

Conditions

A number of plugins impose the following conditions.

License and copyright notice: A copy of the license and copyright notice must be included with the licensed material.

License and copyright notice for source: A copy of the license and copyright notice must be included with the licensed material in source form, but is not required for binaries.

State changes: Changes made to the licensed material must be documented.

Disclose source: Source code must be made available when the licensed material is distributed.

Network use is distribution: Users who interact with the licensed material via network are given the right to receive a copy of the source code.

Same license: Modifications must be released under the same license when distributing the licensed material. In some cases a similar or related license may be used.

Same license (file): Modifications of existing files must be released under the same license when distributing the licensed material. In some cases a similar or related license may be used.

Same license (library): Modifications must be released under the same license when distributing the licensed material. In some cases a similar or related license may be used, or this condition may not apply to works that use the licensed material as a library.

Limitations

A number of plugins impose the following limitations.

Trademark use: This license explicitly states that it does NOT grant trademark rights, even though licenses without such a statement probably do not grant any implicit trademark rights.

Liability: This license includes a limitation of liability.

Patent use: This license explicitly states that it does NOT grant any rights in the patents of contributors.

Warranty: This license explicitly states that it does NOT provide any warranty.