What license to choose for an open source project using Highcharts

Question

I have to release a software package on GitHub (or any public repository) that uses Highcharts. Because of this, I am not sure which license to pick for my project. Here is some more information:

1. I am in academia, so my project falls under 'non-commercial use' (if I understood correctly), and my project can use highcharts for free.
2. While my project uses Highcharts, none of the Highcharts code is included in the repository. So basically it's a dependency, but it is not included anywhere in the repository itself.

Given these two points, I am not sure whether:

1. I can pick whichever license I want, since none of the highcharts code is included. In that case, I guess that anyone forking the repository would have to make sure they respect the terms of the Highchart's license.
2. There is a particular type of license I need to pick to avoid any legal trouble.

If things get too complicated, I am also thinking to rewrite some of my code to get rid of the Highcharts dependency, which I would prefer to avoid given how awesome this library is.

Sorry if it reads like a dumb question, but it's the first time I have to do such things and could not really find information about this particular case online.

Answer 1

As HighCharts is not under an open-source license, you have some restrictions on which license you can use for your project.

In particular, you cannot use any of the licenses from the GPL suite (GPL, LGPL, AGPL). All of those licenses have the requirement that you have the right to apply the conditions imposed by the license also to your dependencies. The HighCharts license does not allow this.

Other than the (L|A|)GPL license, or other licenses that impose requirements of how your dependencies are distributed, you can choose any license you like.