Referencing nuget packages that are licensed under the Apache 2.0 license?

Question

I created my first open-source project a few weeks ago. I have never done anything like that and have no idea, how to license and how to use licensed stuff. I researched a bit and found that it would be okay to use the MIT license for my project.

My project uses a few other nuget packages. One of the nuget packages is SignalR, which is licensed under Apache License 2.0. I haven't edited any code, I just use their nuget packages.

My questions are:

• Do I have to include the license into my project?
• Do I have to keep anything else in mind, when using their nuget packages in terms of credits or licensing?

Answer 1

If you are actually redistributing any licensed code - either source or binaries - in your actual product, then yes, you need to follow the license. The simplest way to do this is to include a copy of the Apache License somewhere in the release, and include a NOTICE file that tells people your product includes other software product(s) that might have different licenses. A good sample NOTICE file for an Apache project is here:

http://www.apache.org/licenses/example-NOTICE.txt

The Apache License 2.0 provides specific guidance:

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html#redistribution

Congrats on being open source!

Answer 2

Do I have to include the license into my project?

If you are redistributing code from SignalR, yes. Or at least a NOTICE if it exists. This is rather well explained in the Apache license.

Do I have to keep anything else in mind, when using their nuget packages in terms of credits or licensing?

How to give credits is explained in the Apache license and this is mostly about the NOTICE. I would personally always go above and beyond this and give credit to every third-party package in an About page, pop up, etc, wherever I credit mylself.