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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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. ...
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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 ...
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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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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 ...
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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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If I just look up a solution for a programming problem do I need to cite the source?
For example, I needed to implement my own pagination system, but I did not know the logic behind a system like that, so I would look up how to do it and then after understading how to do it I would ...
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Is this copyright infringment?
I created a project to validate objects.
It's influenced by a fairly known project called FluentValidation by Jeremy Skinner which has an Apache License.
Both projects do the same, provide an API ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
CommunityBot
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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 ...
CommunityBot
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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&...
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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 ...
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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 ...
- 33.4k
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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 ...
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How to properly attribute other's people work on GitHub?
I have an open source project (under GPL license) that has some parts incorporated from other projects (that use MIT and GPL), and one of the provisions of both of these licenses is The above ...
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Dealing with multiple contributions in a 30+ years old software project
Context: I'm working on an old software project which dates back to 1988. I collaborate with its main author who created the program back then and originally published it under non-free license in the ...
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Should I keep the old project's name in the copyright details after a fork?
So, given what i asked here, I was wondering if i should leave the old project's name after a fork, in the copyright detail in the code...
Essentially, I did it like so:
#Copyright 2015 by ....
#...
- 33.4k
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What should I do with the copyright details in a codebase when modifying it when it wasn't forked?
So essentially, I once downloaded some script off github, forgot about it, then thought "Why not modify it!" and thus now decided to push it to my github account...
Question is though, do i ...
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Do you retain copyright in a project even if all your code has been rewritten?
If somebody has participated in an open source project, and has previously contributed several lines of source code but all those lines have now been completely rewritten and/or deleted so that all ...
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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 ...
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Can I use a logo (Image) from a GitHub repository with an MIT License?
Can I use a Logo (Image file) from Github Repository with an MIT License, without violating any copyright terms?
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Where to disclaim multiple third-party copyrights in project?
I am building a software that in its theoretical form would use logos from several different financial companies to enhance user experience and identification. I intend to use their websites' favicons ...
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What happens if stolen software is published as Open Source?
This is not a real world issue, at least for me. It is more about a thought experiment from a talk that I once had with a friend:
Let's say that Acme develops closed source software for their own ...
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What does "with modifications" mean in BSD licenses?
All BSD licenses start with the following paragraph:
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
...
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440
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Custom Linux distro Copyright and license notices
I am developing a commercial product that ships with a custom embedded Linux distro (similar to Yocto), and am in the process of collecting the copyright and license notices to comply with the GPL ...
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296
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Definition of a modified code
It may seem to be a bit silly question, but I couldn't find a strict definition that would address my specific situation (I appreciate I'm not the first to experience it though).
There's a library ...
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Legal Aspects of Illustrations in Open Source Software (MIT License) - Adding Copyright Notice?
It's about an app that was created in a student project (in Germany) and will be soon released in the Google Play Store and also published on GitHub as OSS under the MIT license. The app features ...
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2
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How to opensource code while protecting the product that runs on it
I have a project that I would like to retain copyright over conceptually while releasing the prototype code. It's a novelty digital clock. I posted some videos of the prototype online and some people ...
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In the BSD license, what does "redistribution" mean?
I'm trying to understand all the responsibilities of this license.
Does redistribution mean:
publicly placing a windows .exe using the BSD licensed library for users to download on a website(free and ...
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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 ...
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Can we modify LGPLv3 license based ERP and change the license to private?
My client wants to use an opensource ERP named Odoo. However modifications like name, UI and languages support would be required. Also the license need to be private onwards
If it is permissible under ...
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How should copyright notices be included when distributing source of modified Apache 2.0 code commercially?
A company wants to distribute a product which includes a browser extension. A browser extension is implemented in JavaScript, so it's distributed in source code form.
Parts of extension are written by ...
CommunityBot
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Why boilerplates are created from scratch, not forked?
I've checked couple dozens popular boilerplates (react, react-native, nodejs) and neither of them are forks from other boilerplates.
Am i missing something? why are people writing them from scratch ...
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Can a CLA be agreed to implicitly, like a license?
For license on software, users who download the software must abide by the license, usually in something like a LICENSE file. I don't need to ask them to fax me a signed document or anything.
For CLAs,...
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What if a project forks a number of projects, but doesn't include the license or copyright that was used -- then another project forks the fork?
So it can be fairly established that this is infringement of copyright, but I'm unsure how to handle this. I've considered making a PR to the project that forked the other projects and adding the ...
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Software license for non-commerical reproducible research [duplicate]
I am a researcher at a university with a guest status. I am not employed though and the work I do is my own. The software I develop belongs to me. For reproducible research I want to publish some of ...
Make42
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Is it possible to license that header file to LGPL but implementation to proprietary license
Suppose someone is writing a proprietary software that uses a shared or dynamic library that is licensed under the GNU LGPL license. If he wants to change the LGPL library code, he make some functions ...
- 33.4k
5
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Copyright Transfer by License?
I am conflicted about the licensing for one of my projects. My goals for the license are very similar to the GPL, with one notable exception. I want to remain the sole copyright owner - to keep ...
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76
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Reusing the original idea of a project without mentioning it
I found a project that is very clever and I would like to build my own but using some of their ideas. That's basically what I did but now the code is similar, because we follow the same idea, but I ...
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Can a company circumvent the freedom of distribution on GPL software for its employees or service providers?
This post contains various related questions, but I think it's needed to solve my doubts properly.
As far as I know if I can access a free software I have the freedom to run, study, modify and ...
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Can ActiveState forbid me to use python?
... there came one question up in my mind?
Can ActiveState forbid me to use python versions downloaded from this page https://www.python.org/downloads/?
Especially for Windows and Linux?
I ask, ...
- 53k
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Licensing for a physical product developed from MIT code
I have a developed a Book using outputs from parts of code from a MIT licence repository.
Where would I show or put the copyright licence? On the product? Or create a website?
Or because it is not ...
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Who will be the copyright owner of a new file in a forked repository on github?
Let's say there is a MIT Licensed repository on github, then by definition all the files that belongs to the repository is owned by the copyright holder of the repository.
But if I fork the project ...
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Does reading code and re-implementing the logic, and releasing under your name count as a licensing violation of MIT?
I'm not clear on what counts as a "copy" in the case of code.
If I read your code, that was MIT licensed, implement a similar logic on my own and use no code fragments from the original author, does ...
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Can I fork libstdc++ without disclaiming copyright for the modifications I make?
NOTICE: Not A duplicate of Am I allowed to add additional copyright on modified code that originally the FSF released under GPLv3:
The previous question answered if I'm allowed to copyright ...
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GPL libraries on my software
I am attempting to write a Hobbyist OS and found that the CuteOS project is very useful for reference and libraries. The only issue is: it's under the GPLv2, and from my understanding if you use a ...
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Am I allowed to add additional copyright on modified code that originally the FSF released under GPLv3
I've ported type_traits from GCC to AVR-GCC with some major modifications to the code structure, style, and used some boost implementations along with some of my own implementations and would like to ...
- 12k
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Licence for youtube captions
Youtube allows creation of auto-generated captions. What are they licensed as? Is it cc0 or can one use them outside the video or to provide a transcript to users after ADA compliance editing.
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Can I privately use copyrighted materials as test data for public projects?
Some time ago I started to develop a 'Sudoku Solver' using Python. Of course, there are many Sudoku solvers already available as open source projects, but I did not want to use any of those, because I ...
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What does a web API entails if it's licensed under MIT? Do I have to credit the API if I use it in my app?
I have trouble understanding if a web api must be credited if it's under the MIT license. I'm technically only calling the API so I'm not modify the API code. It seems to my understanding that it is ...
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