Open Source Beta

Questions tagged [api]

Ask Question

Use the tag if an open project or license concerns the specific use or interaction with an Application Programming Interface (API).

22 questions
Newest
Active
Bountied
Unanswered
Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
5
votes
1answer
64 views

Publish code on GitHub with a call to public API

This question is more about conventional practice, so I don't include the detail about code or environment. It should be applied to all type of API call. This question was asked on SE exchange, but it ...
1
vote
0answers
38 views

AGPL - Api usage

I am currently working on a workout app for a gym and in my research stumbled upon wger. https://wger.de/en/software/license. An API distributed under AGPL. My question is the following: Does the ...
1
vote
2answers
64 views

Is software still free if it uses nonfree APIs?

I am making a piece of software and I plan to have it interact with the Discord API, which I know is nonfree because it expressly prohibits freedom 1 (the freedom to look at and modify the source ...
4
votes
1answer
45 views

Should I Exclude Files from the License if they May Reference other Copyrighted Work

I'm working on a few wrappers for some web APIs which are under the Apache-2.0 license; for testing I have responses that I've gotten from the real API on the resource classpath to test against. I ...
1
vote
1answer
28 views

Using a free API which licensed “For personal / non-commercial projects” in website with banners

if using in a website a free API that has the following license: For personal / non-commercial projects. under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. https://...
0
votes
1answer
64 views

Can FOSS software make API calls to proprietary systems?

I'm not sure if the distinction between free and open source software makes a difference for this question, so I'll use the term FOSS. Can a FOSS platform make API calls to proprietary systems, such ...
1
vote
5answers
406 views

Who is the copyright holder when GPLv2 project API is used?

I've read a lot of articles and still can't find the answer to the following question. There is a project that uses GNU General Public License version 2 license, developed by CompanyX. We (...
2
votes
0answers
117 views

Can I use API exposed in an open source project (MIT License) in a commercial software?

I wanted to use an api that is exposed in an open source project under MIT License.There's no restrictions mentioned for the use of api anywhere in the License neither it says that we can use the api ...
2
votes
1answer
263 views

Does using an AGPLv3 application through a customised API deem a interfacing application derivative work and must be made public to network users?

A few points to be made to help give clarity to the scenario: The AGPL application and its API can and most likely be customised to suit business needs Other unknown licensed applications require to ...
2
votes
0answers
52 views

Publishing Open Source Software without disclosing a libraries API key

I am working on a project which I plan to opensource. The app will use a crash detection library which to initialise requires an API key and app key in order to initialise and send th crash data to ...
4
votes
1answer
129 views

MIDI in free software

Yesterday, I got a copyright question on my GitHub repo for my MIDI SDK. I want to know how free software projects handle such problems. In short: Is it legal to list all constants except the General ...
3
votes
2answers
433 views

Why Google’s court victory might kill the GPL?

On the article: Op-ed: Oracle attorney says Google’s court victory might kill the GPL They say: It is hard to see how GPL can survive such a result. In fact, it is hard to see how ownership of a ...
4
votes
1answer
781 views

Open Source projects with encryption keys

I currently have a project which I'm planning in the not too distant future to open source on GitHub. The question I have is regarding how open source projects are released if they have encryption ...
5
votes
2answers
361 views

Re-implementation of a proprietary API

There is a proprietary library whose API I want to re-implement, which is provided to the users with specification, and its use is limited by its license to internal evaluation (to develop programs ...
3
votes
2answers
72 views

Linking vs API vs data

I know that GPL requires linking application to be licensed under GPL. Some database lisense covers data usage. I'm sure there's something for API too. But from the comments here on OSSE I also know ...
1
vote
2answers
306 views

GNU GPL question: Do I need to open source my entire app?

I am using the Telegram API (licensed under GNU GPL) to integrate chat services within my own application. The developer of Telegram asks to - "Please remember to publish your code too in order to ...
3
votes
4answers
159 views

Non-public data in GPL project

Is it possible to release software under GPL license but not publish one small part of it which contains data that really shouldn't be available publicly (I mean private API keys, etc.) If not, which ...
8
votes
1answer
221 views

Can I apply an open source license if I referenced copyright documentation during development?

I am working on python library that wraps a non-free C library. In order to develop this, I referenced the C library's copyrighted documentation. Because of that my function and variable names are the ...
8
votes
3answers
2k views

Publishing software as open source while keeping an API key secret

I have a project that I want to release as open source. However, the project interacts with some external web-based API that requires a key (issued by API owners specifically for the project), that ...
5
votes
1answer
147 views

Does a file format constitute an API?

This is an attempt to break down: Does a host application's license apply to plug-ins written for it? into the underlying questions. Assume the following scenario: Two programs 'communicate' via ...
9
votes
2answers
213 views

Can I release my plugin scripts as open source if they rely on a proprietary API?

I write scripts for a commercial GIS package (ArcGIS) using Python and the GIS package software API (Arcpy). I had been thinking about putting the scripts that I create on GitHub under an MIT licence ...
21
votes
4answers
2k views

What are the implications of the Google vs. Oracle case on the state of public APIs?

There is a case between Google and Oracle over the use of Java and it's standard library on the Google Android operating system. From this article: To recap: Oracle accused Google of copying some of ...