software licensing
Am I allowed to use another company’s Software License?
<p>Say I work on a software project where I want to publish the source code (for example on GitHub) solely for review (= access, analyse, test and otherwise review the code as a reference). Now, I asked here because I am aware that software like that is not considered "open source". Some companies have licenses for that. </p>

<p>Microsoft has the <a href="https://referencesource.microsoft.com/license.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">MS-RSL License</a></p>

<p>Mega, for instance, has the "<a href="https://github.com/meganz/MEGAsync/blob/master/LICENCE.md" rel="nofollow noreferrer">MEGA LIMITED CODE REVIEW LICENCE</a>"</p>

<p>Now my question is, am I allowed to use one of those licenses as well and change the content to fit my project? Or are those licenses licensed exclusively to the company which issued them?</p>

<p>I haven't found a license yet, which explicitly allows me to use it. Other than <a href="https://commonsclause.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Common Clause</a> and simply <a href="https://choosealicense.com/no-permission/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">No License</a>, that is.</p>

<p>Software licenses, like most text documents, are protected by copyright. You don't have a right to just copy someone else's software license. You have even less rights to create a derived work by modifying someone else's software license (and in practice you would have to do that, even if only to change company and product names). </p>

<p>The creators of the GPL license give you permission to use unmodified copies of the GPL license, and absolutely no permission whatsoever to use modified copies.</p>
