Questions tagged [copyright]

Use this tag on questions about the copyrighting process and principles. Questions solely pertaining to general copyright are off topic.

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2 votes
1 answer
52 views

If I do an ML project copying code heavily from Tensorflow's tutorials, am I still allowed to share it on Github (or other repositories)?

(I asked this on Reddit and didn't get a good reaction. I wasn't sure if this was the right forum, but I wanted to ask somewhere related.) I'm fairly new to machine learning (and programming in ...
1 vote
0 answers
58 views

Could a CLA be avoided by simply specifying in the license a particular owner who may grant closed source use? [duplicate]

One of the main purposes of a CLA (contributor license agreement), as I understand it, is to allow some owner of the software to have full rights to relicense the code if desired. This is rather ...
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1 vote
1 answer
63 views

How to handle Apache 2 license for backend use

We are using an open sourced (Apache 2.0 License) OCR framework/library for a website. User uploads an image to our web portal, we send that image to the backend, which hands over that image to the ...
3 votes
1 answer
79 views

BSD-3/MIT etc. - How "often" do I need to include the license text?

For instance, the BSD-3 Clause license states: Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/...
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2 votes
0 answers
63 views

What is the proper way to add attribution to a gpl3 licensed diff/patch file?

This is as much a technical issue as a license issue, but I would appreciate correction if any of my assumptions about how the licenses work are incorrect. Assume that I want to use a patch file from ...
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3 votes
1 answer
71 views

Copyright a web page created from a MIT license theme?

I am confused as to how to describe a web page from a theme licensed under the MIT license that I want to modify and use for my own private commercial purposes. I do want to have the copyright on what ...
7 votes
2 answers
762 views

How do open source licences affect the incorporation of copyright / trademark logos names in a project?

When a private corporation decides to publish software under a permissive open source licence (for example, the MIT licence) there might still be a desire for that company's name and logo to be ...
0 votes
0 answers
52 views

I use the npm package, do I have to specify the license for each package?

If I use a specific library and this library uses other packages.. In the event that I have a license and copyright notice, is it obligatory for this library or for all sub-packages? Do I have to ...
6 votes
5 answers
2k views

Are there any software licenses that allow for everything but changing the license or dual-licensing?

I would like to allow users of my code to make derivatives, but disallow derivatives from imposing any restrictions on the usage of my code. Is there an existing license that would fit this ...
2 votes
2 answers
101 views

What to put in header copyright notice after total conversion of library that didn't have license headers?

I want to convert a C# library (not written by myself) licensed under Apache License v2 to C++. The original C# library has a LICENSE file with the Apache license information, however the individual ...
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4 votes
1 answer
94 views

LICENSE text in build folder

When I build my site using create-react-app build, it creates a main.779c7054.js.LICENSE.txt which contains the license texts of the dependencies. In this case I am using Next.js and lets say I am ...
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2 votes
1 answer
153 views

Using SVG icons with CC-BY-4.0 license

The license states - "In the Font Awesome Free download, the CC BY 4.0 license applies to all icons packaged as .svg and .js files types. ... Attribution is required by MIT, SIL OFL, and CC BY ...
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8 votes
2 answers
640 views

Use SVG code licensed under CC

I want to use SVG icons which are licensed under CC BY 4.0 on my website. The CC BY 4.0 asks to give attribution. So, the question is do I give the attribution in the SVG code as "Icons provided ...
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-1 votes
3 answers
215 views

Using Font Awesome icons on my site

" In the Font Awesome Free download, the CC BY 4.0 license applies to all icons packaged as .svg and .js files types.". How can such simple and general purpose icons hold copyright? Also the ...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
49 views

License GPLv3 scenario for a plugin A for Blender 3D and software B that communicates with plugin A. What is the license for software B?

I would like to create a plugin let's called 'A' for Blender 3D and a software let's called it 'B' that communicates with the plugin A through network. I know that Blender 3D has GPL license for the ...
3 votes
1 answer
256 views

Name/pseudonym change in copyright notice in license

I have several open source projects and was about to upload another one (to github) when I started wondering about the licensee in the license text. Some of my existing projects use either my real ...
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2 votes
1 answer
106 views

How to put Copyright notice If I use several other code bases (MIT)

If I use piece of code from some other repo which is under MIT licence I can directly use/show their Copyright info in my repo. That part is OK. But what happenes if I get several pieces of code from ...
3 votes
1 answer
68 views

What notice should Bob give when he takes a web app under Apache2, changes UI and the database, then hosts it?

Question asked here, but without much attention; posting here. Please write a bit of detail steps on how to follow Apache2 requirements for a new beginner, (whose native language is not English,) ...
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4 votes
1 answer
105 views

What is an Open Source license that prevents using the name of the software, and requires user-facing attribution if adopted?

I'm writing an App, and considering making it open source. However, I'd like to retain a certain level of creative control of the project-- is there a way I can make it so that, if it's forked, it can'...
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5 votes
1 answer
478 views

Reuse of source code having BSD License in Android App

I have successfully developed an Android App in Android Studio but the final thing which is disturbing me is that, my app contains code from a GitHub repository that has BSD license as given below: ...
1 vote
0 answers
58 views

What is the license of Firefox browser console debug panel?

It needs to be included in the documentation, and in a fit of paranoia I started thinking about its copyright status Usually Commons documentation is useful but https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/...
2 votes
1 answer
63 views

Can GPLv3 contributions to a separate project be used without attribution?

I recently forked a relatively new GPLv3 project on GitHub, as it had seemingly been abandoned not long after its creator had published it, and I wanted to make some improvements, as it was in a ...
-1 votes
1 answer
66 views

How to retrieve copyright from contributors [duplicate]

I have recently taken some time to study different licenses and I was wondering: If I have a open source project and other people contribute, how do I receive the copyright? Or is it possible to not ...
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4 votes
2 answers
809 views

Adding features that are similar to a proprietary program

I have an open source discord bot which I've built myself and I liked a feature of another proprietary discord bot. So can I implement almost similar feature to my bot? Will that violate copyright ...
  • 197
0 votes
0 answers
71 views

Is an offset pointer implementation trivial enough not to be covered by copyright?

This article discuss the question of whether a "hello world" program is protected by copyright. It comes to the conclusions that it is not (under US copyright law) because most of it is ...
0 votes
0 answers
85 views

When does an implemention cease being trivial and become covered by copyright?

This article discuss the question of whether a "hello world" program is protected by copyright. It comes to the conclusions that it is not (under US copyright law) because most of it is ...
0 votes
0 answers
47 views

Can I develop a video game or mod related to 3rd party artwork?

I'm developing a video game with many easter eggs and references to science, technologies, philosophy, and some movies, tv series, animated series, video games, franchises of fictional universes, ...
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3 votes
1 answer
78 views

Citing project with license but without copyright notice

The authors of a project whose code I wish to use and is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later have failed to provide a copyright notice. I know what their GitHub organization is. How should I cite their ...
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2 votes
1 answer
232 views

SPDX And Copyright notices. Do I need to do anything about dependencies?

I'm currently working on a new MIT licensed project (with Creative Commons License for documentation). The project uses a combination of Java and Kotlin and is built with Gradle. All files have ben ...
3 votes
1 answer
519 views

Is it allowed to copy code under the Unity Reference-Only License?

While developing the game, I need a method that changes the rendering type of the material, but the corresponding method is in the internal class StandardShaderGUI, which I don't have access to. I ...
1 vote
0 answers
105 views

What is the standard format for the MPL-2.0 license modification notice?

I would like to use a modified version of open-source code licensed under MPL 2.0 in my own open-source code, also licensed under MPL 2.0. But I'm unsure about the specific standard format for ...
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13 votes
2 answers
5k views

If my repository uses a MIT license, can I submit a DMCA takedown for someone who copied it?

I have an MIT-licensed repository which has been copied entirely, just replacing the author's name. I've heard that MIT takes away most copyright and permits free use, but if anyone can copy code and ...
0 votes
1 answer
125 views

How can i use pandasgui commercially if the pyqt library used is not free for commercial use?

pandasgui allows commercial use under the MIT license but I noticed the library used includes PYQT5 which is under the GPL v3 licence how is that possible ?
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5 votes
1 answer
180 views

Copyright notices in a forked AGPL codebase

My workplace uses an open source project with an AGPL 3.0 license. It's been abandoned as far as I can tell – no commits for 5 years aside from a handful of contributed pull requests (the most recent ...
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1 vote
1 answer
63 views

Copy license terms from other product?

This might not be a very "open source" question, but I thought I might find in this forum the right people for the question. For a mortal human being creating a PDF with the license terms ...
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8 votes
1 answer
2k views

Who owns copyright if I place code in a repository but do not update the copyright notice?

I think my case is covered by Who will be the copyright owner of a new file in a forked repository on github?, but I want to be sure that it applies in my situation, too. I forked a project licensed ...
user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
49 views

Why can't I distribute my application und a license of my choice when I accept contributions? [duplicate]

I have an app that I want to make open source, as in the literal definition of the code being public. Github says that if you don't apply a license, it's copyrighted by default. I want that, to be the ...
user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
509 views

Propietary licensing of open source code

I have written a program that uses several open source components. First off, it's written in python. Second, I use the modules subprocess, argparse, os and datetime. Since my work asked me to find a ...
3 votes
0 answers
131 views

System libraries and exceptions regarding closed source distribution

There are some specific usage examples I would like to learn, regarding of using some open source libraries inside a commercial closed source product(binary, executable). Most of the answers online ...
2 votes
1 answer
351 views

Idiomatic format for a doxygen file header with license, author and copyright info?

Suppose I have taken a source file named foo.c, written by John Smith in 1999, with email address jsmith@some.where.org, which was published under the terms of, say, GPL v2. Now, I'm making some ...
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2 votes
0 answers
73 views

Java Licensing Question

I have questions about Java licensing Well, after many court hearings with Oracle vs Google, I analyzed this topic again and I would like to ask you about a few things: Oracle was accusing Google of ...
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1 vote
1 answer
585 views

Using npm packages in a project and their licences

So, I'm developing a web application, and I'm using a ton of npm packages while doing that. All of those packages are free and open source, and they are distributed under common licences as MIT, GPL, ...
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3 votes
1 answer
143 views

Mapbox Studio raster PNG tiles license (open or not?)

I have a FLOSS project using Leaflet that needs more raster base layers but we have some requirements. One of them is to only use Free Cultural works. Here the definition: https://freedomdefined.org/...
1 vote
1 answer
130 views

Does copyright infringement apply to user interfaces in a software?

I am making an open-source software that is an alternative version of another very popular software, Postman. The inspiration reflects mainly on user interface and concepts. No source code was copied ...
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1 vote
1 answer
387 views

Can I dual license my software that is on Github with a GPLv3 license?

To my understanding, as the maker of the software, I have the right to dual licensing the software as I wish, be it both an open source license and a proprietary closed license at the same time. ...
3 votes
1 answer
271 views

Choosing License of GitHub Repository

I really don't know much about the licenses. I am working on a project which I might upload on a website. So I have a few questions. Can someone ever steal my code and commercially use it if I put my ...
0 votes
1 answer
187 views

Can I use a license without providing a copyright notice myself?

So I googled a bit and found that a copyright notice isn't actually required anymore which I prefer as I'd rather provide a text like this: Project is open-source and made by the following ...
2 votes
1 answer
130 views

Is commit author name stripping copyright infringement?

I'm the author of Fulguris which is in conflict with Styx. Both projects are MPL 2.0. Fulguris is a fork of the decade old Lightning and Styx is just a rebrand of Fulguris. Styx completely destroyed ...
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2 votes
1 answer
211 views

How to provide attribution when numerous contributors hold copyright

My software depends on and links to a third-party open-source library licensed under the MIT license. No copyright notice is present in the LICENSE file, the README file, or any of the source files. ...
1 vote
0 answers
124 views

Will I get copyright strike for Using creative commons video if the license is changed by the owner?

Imagine that I used a person's "creative commons" licensed video for making a youtube video and uploaded it to youtube. Then after some time, the person decided to change the video's license ...
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