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 does GitHub's "forking right" cope with an "All rights reserved" project?
The GitHub FAQ states (emphasis mine):
You're under no obligation to choose a license. It's your right not to
include one with your code or project, but please be aware of the
implications. ...
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4
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Should I include a copyright line in every file?
This is similar to my other question, but specifically about Copyright rather than Licensing.
Typically, each source file contains a line of the form
Copyright 2010-2015, Me
Is this strictly ...
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39
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3
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What's the difference between Copyright and Licensing?
Preamble
There are two other questions, specifically related to Licensing and Copyright.
In reviewing the answers and comments, I get the feeling that people generally consider the two to be the ...
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32
votes
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answers
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Copyright and Contributing to an Open Source Project
I'm a little confused by copyright notices on open source projects.
Let's say that a particular project is covered by a very permissive license, such as MIT or BSD. A copyright notice appears from ...
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How does a programmer ever produce original code if anything they produce is considered derivative because they viewed similar source code?
I'm very confused by what I'm finding on this site. On one hand, it appears as if no programmer is even capable of producing original code if they have ever viewed a source code for a program which ...
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3
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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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29
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4
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Is it legal to have the "// (c) 2019 John Smith" header in all files when there are hundreds of contributors?
Companies use headers like
// Copyright 2011 The Go Authors.
But countless projects with a single maintainer have
// Copyright 2011 John Smith
even though they have hundreds of contributors, all ...
- 495
27
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2
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So the GPL doesn't restrict the creator of the software in any way?
In another thread I started (Red Hat buys Ansible), I am trying to figure out the economic value of a company transaction with respect to GPL'ed software. A few of the answers suggest that the owners ...
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26
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1
answer
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How to deal with licences after forking a project?
I forked a project with an MIT license on GitHub:
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2012 Some Name
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software ...
- 363
25
votes
2
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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?...
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Does the owner of the github repository own the copyright to the code?
Say I'm the only one uploading code to someone's private repository, do they own the copyright to the code? Or do I own the copyright to the code since I wrote it?
Would adding a license stating ...
- 399
22
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5
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Does being open sourced mean others can use my logo?
Suppose
I have created an open source application
I have also created a snazzy logo to go with the application (for example, the Eclipse logo)
I released my application's source code under a ...
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21
votes
2
answers
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How should I assert copyright when I'm forking an MIT project?
I have an open source software project licensed under MIT.
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Håvard Fossli
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any ....
I found ...
- 313
18
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1
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How do I release code written for a company to the public?
I'm working on a Unity project for a company and, while doing so, I wrote some code that I think would be cool to have it on the internet, free to use.
But I never released something that is owned by ...
- 183
17
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2
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How to apply MIT license in the GitHub repo for fully free project?
I have a public repository for an open source project on GitHub. It's main goal is to
make this code available to anybody (including myself) who may what to use it, for free, for all the time, with ...
- 223
17
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2
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289
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What to do when proprietary code is found in your open source project?
We have an open source project and suspect one contributor has submitted code that is not their own and is under a closed source copyright.
We know we have to remove the code. Also I assume anyone ...
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How do I properly specify the year(s) of copyright?
Most source files start with a copyright header like this (from GNU ld):
/* Main program of GNU linker.
Copyright 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001,
2002, 2003, ...
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2
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Why does the FSF make this recommendation about ranges of copyright years?
In the document “How to use GNU licenses for your own software”, the FSF says:
For software with several releases over multiple years, it's okay to use a range (“2008-2010”) instead of listing ...
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2
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Jurisdictions without compatible copyright law
Free software licences such as GPL depend on copyright law in order to be legally enforcable.
Are there jurisdictions in which the law does not enforce such licenses, allowing the license to be ...
15
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2
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505
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Must contributor agreements be physically signed?
I've been developing an API internally with a few friends, and hope to expand it and make it open to the broader public. I've highlighted a lot of background in this question, but to recap, it's a ...
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15
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2
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Do we need to follow the license for CA certs?
Some OSS projects include CA certificates and claims that they are subject to a particular OSS license. For example the certificates in https://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/security/nss/lib/ckfw/...
- 405
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1
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How to deal with copyright infringement on GitHub
I have a public repository on GitHub. Some of the code was copy-and-pasted into another repository without keeping Licence headers and without any other back-linking to the original repository.
How ...
- 243
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Projects which require copyright assignment from contributors?
I read the following in ØMQ - The Guide (in Chapter 6, in the section Licensing and Ownership):
All patches are owned by their authors. There SHALL NOT be any copyright assignment process.
Here we ...
- 339
13
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2
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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 ...
- 149
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3
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506
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What happens to an open source project when the copyright expires?
With conventional copyright, N years after the author's death the copyright expires (where N varies from country to country). Since free and open source licences are supported legally by copyright law,...
13
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3
answers
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What is the copyright status of Colossal Cave Adventure?
What is the copyright status of the source code of “Adventure” (also known as Colossal Cave Adventure)?
There is a good record today of the history of Adventure. Specifically: The 1975–1976 Crowther ...
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2
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Is copyright automatic?
If I publish something on my website is a form of copyright automatically placed on that text?
For example I know if you specifically say "This is published under [insert some cc license here]" then ...
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13
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1
answer
453
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Can I resubmit someone else's pull request if he does not sign CLA?
Someone helped with progress upstream at an open source project I really rely on. He basically did what I was not capable of and now I am waiting for his pull request to be merged and included in ...
- 243
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2
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"SQLite is illegal in Germany" - really?
This blog post claims in passing that
SQLite is illegal, at least in Germany, but potentially worldwide
This is tacked onto another mostly-unrelated claim that GitHub's terms of service are ...
- 5,803
13
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2
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3k
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Removing the original copyright line from footer
There's this web app licensed under GPLv3 that I'd like to deploy. However, the footer of each page has a copyright line, e.g., "© 2015 FooBar Inc.". Is it okay to remove that line and/or replace it ...
- 231
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votes
2
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Can I modify source code licensed under MIT license without publishing my changes?
Imagine I write a piece of software, which uses some MIT-licensed library. Let's assume that I modified that library.
My software (of which that library is part) produces some content, which I sell ...
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12
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1
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Copyright notice must be regularly updated while the project is active?
I started an open source project in 2013, with the LGPL license. I've been regularly working on it for the last four years. Each file includes the standard copyright notice that include the copyright ...
- 223
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1
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Does the AGPL help to protect against closed source if the application is run on a remote server and proxied by a separate service?
Note that there is this related question of which this question is by no means a duplicate. It refers to a related but separate scenario.
Long question title, I'll just go with an example. Suppose I ...
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425
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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
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Rules for appropriate editing of copyright notices in cloned, Apache-2.0-licenced, opensource repositories
I have cloned a repo under the Apache 2.0 licence and am changing content.
under section 4 of the licence:
a. You must cause any modified files to carry prominent notices stating that You changed ...
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2
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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 ...
- 219
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1
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Copyright notices and multiple developers
Suppose a big project with GPL license has several developers, most of whom working on a few source files. Is it appropriate/possible that the copyright notice in each source file include only the ...
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Copyright notice in the file header (Apache v2 license)
Recently, about 50 top contributors (including myself) decided to fork Swagger Codegen to maintain a community-driven version called "OpenAPI Generator" (https://github.com/OpenAPITools/openapi-...
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842
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Can a GitHub Organization assert copyright?
I started an OSS project with a fellow coding enthusiast in 2014 (that has since pretty much left the project, although as far as I can tell he's still following everything that's going on). Since the ...
- 309
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What license do I apply to my software if parts of its code is derived from MIT licensed open source software?
This is the first time I'm handling licenses and could use some guidance in this matter.
I have developed a piece of Java software where parts of the code is derived from different classes licensed ...
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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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Why do licenses such as the MIT License specify a single year?
From opensource.org, the first line of the license reads,
Copyright <YEAR> <COPYRIGHT HOLDER>
If the development goes across January 1, or a repository consists of sources written in ...
9
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4
answers
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Is there any point to the copyright notice in 0BSD?
The 0BSD license template contains a copyright notice line.
Copyright (c) [year] [fullname]
Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any
purpose with or without fee is ...
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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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Why use licenses? Why not release open source code to public domain?
Why do most open source projects use licenses instead of simply releasing the code into the public domain?
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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 ...
user26449
9
votes
2
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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 ...
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Can I use my username in copyright?
I am releasing a program under the GNU GPL v3.0. I need to include a copyright notice.
Is it ok to use my username in the copyright notice as I don't want to use my real name?
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Copyright until the present year in BSD license?
I have the following line in my BSD (new, 2 clause) open-source code:
// Copyright (c) 2003-present, Jodd Team (http://jodd.org)
Previously, I've used a real year (e.g. 2003-2014). However, updating ...
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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.).
...
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