Questions tagged [copyright]
For questions about the copyrighting process and principles. Questions solely pertaining to general copyright are off topic.
360 questions
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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 ...
8
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2
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813
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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 ...
1
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3
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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 ...
4
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1
answer
127
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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 call it 'A' for Blender 3D and a software let's call it 'B' that communicates with plugin A through the network.
I know that Blender 3D has GPL license for the ...
3
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1
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533
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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 ...
3
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1
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1k
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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
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1
answer
93
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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,) ...
4
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1
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415
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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'...
5
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1
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634
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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
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0
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62
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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/...
3
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1
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110
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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
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1
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87
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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 ...
4
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2
answers
817
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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 ...
2
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0
answers
194
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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 ...
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0
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147
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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 ...
1
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0
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88
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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, ...
3
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1
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135
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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 ...
2
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1
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829
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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
2
answers
693
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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
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199
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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 ...
13
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2
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6k
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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
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1
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232
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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 ?
6
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1
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423
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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 ...
2
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1
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77
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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 ...
9
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1
answer
2k
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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 ...
0
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0
answers
51
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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 ...
4
votes
2
answers
707
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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 ...
5
votes
0
answers
256
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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
878
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 [email protected], which was published under the terms of, say, GPL v2. Now, I'm making some ...
2
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0
answers
106
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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 ...
1
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1
answer
2k
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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, ...
3
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1
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250
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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
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1
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351
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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 ...
1
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1
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1k
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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
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1
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536
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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 ...
1
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1
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666
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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
247
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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 ...
3
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1
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372
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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
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0
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238
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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 ...
2
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0
answers
49
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If the original author updates their program, is it now a modified work? [duplicate]
Lets say programmer Ed has made program foo and the program is licensed under the GPL license. If Ed updates his program, is that now a derivative or modified work? What if John contributes to ...
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1
answer
47
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What copyright/permissions to use for a publicly available student paper online (GitHub)?
I have a senior year project hosted on GitHub, including CAD files, code, and a written paper (PDF) that describes my work. I would like to ask what copyright or permissions I should include on this ...
4
votes
1
answer
756
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GPL and original author's copyright text in completely rewritten code
I'm about to release my first "big" project on Github, and although I want it to remain open-source and I have no plan of selling it, I want to try to make this licensing stuff right for my ...
3
votes
1
answer
147
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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 ...
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1
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107
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Modifying and releasing Windows-XP code [closed]
Am I legally allowed to modify (remove bloatware, rewrite functions etc.) to leaked code and release it online for free? I don't intend to license anything, it's just mostly for a personal project to ...
2
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0
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445
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Can I use unmodified Grafana as the visualisation component of my commercial service?
In the light of the new AGPL Grafana license, can we still use unmodifed Grafana served as a docker image on cloud as the visualisation component of our commercial service?
My understanding so far is ...
2
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2
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1k
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Can someone else copyright for themselves already copyrighted things?
I’m not sure to say about it here (but for the now it’s place most focused on law in SE). Recently I found a guy on routinehub who said that all his app is copyrighted. He made app fully and only from ...
0
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1
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159
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Published & monetized apps on the Google Play Store using GitHub libraries licensed under "BSD 2-Clause "Simplified" License" and "Apache License 2.0"
I slightly modified some libraries from GitHub, published them in the form of apps on the Google Play Store and monetized them.
The libraries are licensed under "BSD 2-Clause "Simplified&...
3
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2
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1k
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Should I include copyright in a minified distribution of my js file?
For example, I have a index.js file (copyrighted), I minify it using UglifyJS and store in index.min.js file, but my copyright notice is removed, should I add it again in index.min.js?
If yes, Can I ...
2
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1
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310
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Should the license header be preceded by the copyright holder?
I'm open sourcing a proprietary codebase (license TBD, probably Apache) were all files have the header:
Copyright <company name>. All rights reserved.
Should this line be preserved in addition ...
2
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1
answer
246
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MIT License for a translation
There's a software called vnpy on github that's in chinese.
We have a translated copy to english. The goal is to keep their MIT license but just for that code.
We're wondering: Should we make a ...