All Questions
18 questions
4
votes
2
answers
2k
views
What parts of code are protected by copyright?
Open Source licenses are all underpinned by copyright law. Without copyright law, Open Source would fall apart.
Copyright was originally written for creative works, and does not protect facts, ideas, ...
- 209
5
votes
3
answers
2k
views
How much of a given work of software can be claimed under fair use? [closed]
I've found that my most recent project has been taking a significant portion code from a GNU GPL code base. While i’m aware that the nature of copyright law allows for such usage, I’m unclear about ...
- 209
3
votes
1
answer
433
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 ...
- 131
1
vote
0
answers
88
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, ...
- 111
2
votes
0
answers
106
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 ...
- 930
3
votes
1
answer
147
views
Create a new UI for an Apache 2.0 software
I'm creating a fork of a software distributed under the Apache License 2.0. This software has many components, one of them is its UI, where It's possible to find the creator's logo and other ...
- 31
-3
votes
2
answers
106
views
Free Office/Libre Office/Apache Office
How Free Office / Libre Office / Apache Office resembles Microsoft Office ?
Did they committed a breach of copyright and cheated Microsoft Office?
And, why till date, Microsoft is not taking any ...
- 1
10
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Excluding open-source contributions from work-for-hire
I'm doing contract work. I'm being asked to sign a standard (AFAICT) agreement that assigns all intellectual property I create to the employer. The context of this work is typical Python and Go ...
- 101
5
votes
1
answer
596
views
Can someone else patent an invention that I have introduced in my open source project?
Is open source protected in any way if I haven't filed for a patent myself? Maybe a specific license?
Any examples of open source projects that introduced 'inventions' that could be patented (but they ...
- 149
5
votes
1
answer
333
views
Do permissive or copyleft licenses have a limited term based on US copyright law?
If you write a book, the copyright for that work is protected for a long time, but the work will eventually enter the public domain under US copyright law. Does the same thing apply to pieces of ...
- 151
11
votes
1
answer
425
views
Accidently commited plagiarism, what now?
I maintain an open-source project.
Somebody made a pull-request two days ago, and I accepted it.
Now I realized, that a large portion of the pull-request is just a copy-pasted from another project (...
- 229
6
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How do I detect an AGPL violation?
For client side code, even if it is obfuscated or is just a binary, I can imagine there might be ways of doing this, but if I have some server-side AGPL licensed code, how am I supposed to know that ...
- 635
8
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Is there a good license for a libertarian programmer who's against intellectual property?
I know, I know, you're probably thinking CC0 or WTFPL or something along those lines. But the thing is, the way I see it, people have a right to redistribute anything, even if the author doesn't want ...
- 207
9
votes
1
answer
496
views
Copyright assignments in Germany
When contributing to some of their projects, the FSF requires you to assign the copyright to your work to the FSF. As I'm German, I'm interested in whether this is compatible with German law.
German ...
- 193
2
votes
1
answer
90
views
Donations for an open source project that is based on other strategy game
I have a question about donations to an open source project that is based on an old strategy game from 90 years (they have own developers and own big publishers and even sells in Steam now).
So we ...
- 39
25
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Theseus' Paradox applied to code copyright
Assuming a copyright license (I'll reference Apache 2.0, but that's an example only) that allows derivations, at what point are those derivations so extensive that the Apache license no longer applies?...
- 353
9
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Who owns the copyright to code which the author was paid to write?
For example, the repository owner owns the app, publishes the partial source code, and creates few tasks supported by some bounty to write some new components (such as new functions, classes, etc.).
...
- 1,101
8
votes
2
answers
300
views
Does an employee have the right to use a CTA?
Most people who work in software development have signed an Intellectual Property Rights Assignment notice whenever they start a new job. The purpose of these assignments is to ensure the employer ...
- 7,037