How can I license a program I am developing using VS Code?

Question

Hello. I am developing a program with python and I want to license the program when I finish it. Can someone help me?

Thank you.

Answer 1

In short, you need to choose a software license, add a license file to your project, and include a copyright notice in your code files. The editor you used (VS Code) and the programming language (Python) do not restrict how you license your own original source code.

Your choice of license depends on whether you want your code to be open-source or proprietary. The MIT License is a short, permissive open-source license that allows others to use, modify, and sell your code as long as they retain your copyright notice and the license terms. Apache 2.0 is another permissive open-source license that also grants explicit patent rights from contributors. The GNU General Public License (GPL) is a copyleft open-source license that generally requires people distributing modified versions of your program to make the corresponding source code available under the GPL. If you want to sell your software or keep it closed-source, you can use a proprietary license or state that all rights are reserved. You should also check the licenses of any third-party Python packages your program uses, because their terms may impose additional obligations.

To add a license file, open your project in VS Code and create a new text file in the project's root folder named LICENSE or LICENSE.txt. Paste the complete text of your chosen license into the file. You can find standard license templates at ChooseALicense.com. Update the copyright notice with the current year and your name or company, for example:

Copyright (c) 2026 Your Name

You can also add a license header to the beginning of your main Python files (.py) to identify the copyright holder and the applicable license. For example, if you choose the MIT License, you could use the following comments:

# Copyright (c) 2026 Your Name.
# Licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE file in the project root.

These comments identify the copyright holder and point readers to the license file. They do not replace the requirement to include the full license text in the LICENSE file.

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hth

Marcin