Short talke that try to explain why you NEED to choose a license for your projects, no matter how tiny it is, and what you should look for to pick one that fit your needs.

1. tl;DR: Pick a license, any license

2.  I am NOT a lawyer
 I am NOT going to tell you WHICH license
to use
 But if you release code in the wild, you
NEED to pick a license

3.  If you don’t specify a license, default
copyright protections apply. That means
no right to right to use, copy, distribute…
or give you back fixes

4.  OpenSource Initiative list of license
respecting the Open Source Definition
 http://opensource.org/osd
 70 different licenses!

5.  GPL / LGPL
 BSD (with variants)
 MIT
 Apache V2
 MPL (Mozilla Public License)

6.  Follow your community
 Think about what usage of your code
would make you mad! ;)
 Save your boss lawyers budget: stick with
a known and common license.

7.  How much do you
care about forcing
contribution back?
 Patent protection?
 Allow commercial
use?

8. http://choosealicense.com/
(Thanks Github!)

10.  Be careful before using code with one license into
a project with another license, or changing your
license!

11.  Documentation, images, pictures: they
need a license too!
 Creative commons:
http://creativecommons.org/choose/
(License compatibility chart is a good
example!)

12.  http://opensource.com/law/13/1/which-open-source-
software-license-should-i-use
 http://blog.codinghorror.com/pick-a-license-any-
license/
 http://www.cio.com/article/2382115/open-source-
tools/how-to-choose-the-best-license-for-
your-open-source-software-project.html
 http://www.wtfpl.net/
 http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/floss-license-
slide.html