Implementing License Policies

Effective license compliance requires clear policies codified in SCA tools. Start by categorizing licenses based on your business model and risk tolerance. Permissive licenses typically fall in the "allowed" category for most organizations. GPL family licenses might be "forbidden" for proprietary software but acceptable for internal tools. AGPL might be prohibited entirely for SaaS companies. Create nuanced policies that reflect actual usage patterns rather than blanket restrictions.

# Example: License Policy Configuration
license_policy:
  forbidden:
    - name: GPL-3.0
      reason: "Incompatible with proprietary distribution"
      exceptions:
        - usage: "development"
        - project_type: "internal_tool"
    
    - name: AGPL-3.0
      reason: "Affects network services"
      exceptions: []
      
  restricted:
    - name: LGPL-3.0
      reason: "Requires dynamic linking"
      approval_required: true
      
  review_required:
    - name: Apache-2.0
      reason: "Patent clauses need legal review"
      conditions:
        - project_type: "distributed_software"
        
  allowed:
    - MIT
    - BSD-3-Clause
    - ISC
    - Apache-2.0  # When conditions don't apply

Policy enforcement must balance security with development productivity. Blocking builds for license violations in production code makes sense, but being overly restrictive during development frustrates developers. Implement staged enforcement—warnings during development, blocks during release preparation. Use exemption mechanisms for accepted risks, requiring documentation of business justification and executive approval. This flexibility prevents policies from becoming obstacles to legitimate development.