The most commonly used licenses covering software packages on an Arch Linux system are found in the `/usr/share/licenses/common` directory. Additional less common licenses for software packages are found in the `/usr/share/licenses` directory, in a subdirectory named for the software package in question. This page provides information about the most common licenses found in Arch Linux.

Additional information and perspectives on free and open source software licenses may be found on the following pages:

*   [w:Free software licence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software_licence "w:Free software licence")
*   [w:Comparison of free and open-source software licenses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_and_open-source_software_licenses "w:Comparison of free and open-source software licenses")
*   [A Legal Issues Primer for Open Source and Free Software Projects](https://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2008/foss-primer.html)
*   [GNU Project - Various Licenses and Comments about Them](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html)
*   [Debian - License information](https://www.debian.org/legal/licenses/)
*   [Open Source Initiative - Licenses by Name](http://www.opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical)

See also [Arch packaging standards#Licenses](/index.php/Arch_packaging_standards#Licenses "Arch packaging standards") and [PKGBUILD#license](/index.php/PKGBUILD#license "PKGBUILD").