Questions tagged [copyright]
Use this tag on questions about the copyrighting process and principles. Questions solely pertaining to general copyright are off topic.
330
questions
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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 ...
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3
votes
1
answer
263
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As the owner of a GPLv3 project, what type of restrictions will be placed on me if I accept contributions?
For example, will accepting someone's copyrighted contribution prohibit me from changing the license, accepting donations towards the project, or anything else?
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1
vote
1
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273
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Can I use and distrubute code posted on JSFiddle
I'd like to use code posted on JSFiddle in a project but do I have permission to do so?
I read the terms of service
but they do not mention anything about licensing the code they host. Instead its ...
- 21
3
votes
1
answer
150
views
What year to use copyright - current year or library build year?
When attributing open source software, do you always default to the current year or the year that the library you are using was built?
For example, I'm using MIT licensed software from a build in ...
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4
votes
1
answer
74
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Are downloaded data automatically licensed?
If a purely Apache v2 licensed software automatically downloads data files from its copyright holder's website without asking the user, does that automatically grant Apache v2 license to the ...
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6
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answer
575
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Are there legal reasons blocking the use of Apache 2 License in France
A French citizen has suggested that there are legal reasons why he cannot contribute to a project using the Apache 2 license.
I responded saying:
French people have contributed to such things ...
5
votes
1
answer
73
views
MIT License for a jointly developed website
My friend and I developed an open-source non-commercial website which we would like to publish with MIT license.
Mit License starts with words
Copyright (c) [year] [fullname]
Is it OK to write both ...
- 153
2
votes
1
answer
108
views
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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288
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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
3
votes
1
answer
95
views
Recreating assets from closed source projects
Recently I'm working on a game, where I have created some asset from closed source project.
To be honest I actually re-created assets similar identical to hill climb.
Now if I use those or I use ...
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29
votes
4
answers
8k
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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 ...
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10
votes
1
answer
2k
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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 ...
- 201
2
votes
1
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271
views
Can CC0 works be called "Copyright free"?
When a work is the Public domain it is "free of any copyright" so it can be called "Copyright free".
When I use the CC0 license I am waiving off all of rights and dedicating it to the public domain.
...
- 347
2
votes
1
answer
515
views
Can I use a company's name in my open-source project?
I'm developing a small open-source plugin for a fairly well known CMS, which as far as I can tell has a trademark on the product and company name. It's starting to get a bit of traction, so I'm in the ...
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7
votes
1
answer
346
views
Modifying the copyright statement in WTFPL
A project I am following uses the WTFPL but updated the text to replace the copyright statement
Copyright (C) 2004 Sam Hocevar <sam@hocevar.net>
with the project author's name and email ...
- 191
4
votes
2
answers
156
views
Release GPL/Open version of project, still sell proprietary license?
Having witnessed projects such as LUFA, which are open source with the MIT license but still have a purchase button for a proprietary license of the toolbox (revoking the MIT License and offering ...
- 143
0
votes
1
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83
views
BSL Copyright Notice
According to the BSL using Boost requires
The copyright notices in the Software [...] must be included in all copies of the Software, in whole or in part, and all derivative works of the Software, ...
- 101
0
votes
1
answer
94
views
What is the license of the Debian Live ISO binary since it is an aggregate work?
A Debian CD or DVD ISO file - here is an example - consists of many different packages containing software licenses under various licenses such as GPLv2, GPLv3, BSD, and a lot of other licenses.
The ...
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1
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293
views
How should I identify myself in a copyright notice / license?
(migrated from programmers.SX)
I'm placing a copyright notice with some (FOSS) license in a LICENSE file in a software package I'm publishing; or it's a license block in a source file.
It starts like ...
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2
votes
1
answer
788
views
If there is no copyright notice, is the license applied?
On a project I noticed that it has a LICENSE file, apparently put in place as template when the project was initialized by Github. The file contains the standard GPLv2 template but no copyright notice....
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2
votes
1
answer
59
views
Where to get music for testing my program?
I need music files I can use for testing my program that I can put in my git repo.
Can I copy the test music files from other open source projects? Do I have to attribute them and if so how?
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3
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1
answer
160
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A small Go library under GPLv2, rewrite it under modified BSD
Go is using a modified BSD license. I would like to use the same license for some projects, most parts / libraries will be published under an open source license, but clients do demand some of the ...
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1
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620
views
What entities are eligible to copyright a project?
Me and my friend want to make business on customization of our open source project. We have NOT yet registered the project trademark NOR started a company.
Сan we write in Copyright 2019 [name of ...
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2
votes
1
answer
158
views
Extending GPL project with Paid license features
I found some GPL v3 licensed open source projects that also have paid enterprise license versions with more useful features.
I only need 10% of the features available in the (expensive) enterprise ...
4
votes
1
answer
599
views
Distributing the Copyright Notices of Libraries with Binary Software
I'm working on a piece of open source software that's distributed as a binary in a Docker container. Thus, most of the users of the software not only do not interact with the source, they do not even ...
- 141
2
votes
0
answers
310
views
Copyright notice in deployed smart contracts
This sounds like a corner case for including copyright notices when distributing copies of a software under MIT and other permissive licenses. In fact, deploying a smart contract on the blockchain ...
- 129
4
votes
1
answer
118
views
Revert copyleft license without consent of all copyright holders
Let's say that Alice has started a project under a permissive license, e. g. MIT. Then Bob forked it and added some features. Now the project has two copyright holders, Alice and Bob. Then Bob decided ...
- 141
4
votes
1
answer
308
views
Rights of deep learning output trained on CC-BY-ND or CC-BY-NC images
We can use GANs to generate original images, but if I train my GAN using CC-BY-ND am I creating a derivative work? If I train with CC-BY-NC images (or even copyrighted images), do I have rights to use ...
- 141
2
votes
5
answers
804
views
Who is the copyright holder when GPLv2 project API is used?
I've read a lot of articles and still can't find the answer to the following question.
There is a project that uses GNU General Public License version 2 license, developed by CompanyX. We (...
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11
votes
1
answer
409
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 (...
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7
votes
1
answer
661
views
Who owns the rights to a logo contributed to an open-source project?
I recently designed a logo for an MIT-licensed open-source project.
That same open-source project has now launched a commercial offering under the same name (just using a .com instead of .org) domain,...
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6
votes
1
answer
790
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 ...
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2
votes
0
answers
316
views
Can I use API exposed in an open source project (MIT License) in a commercial software?
I wanted to use an api that is exposed in an open source project under MIT License.There's no restrictions mentioned for the use of api anywhere in the License neither it says that we can use the api ...
- 121
6
votes
1
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834
views
Copyright of MIT licenced libraries usage within GPL licensed code
My software is completely written in python and has the following architecture of down cascaded dependencies. I plan to share my whole source code (FileA, FileB, FileC) next time in GitHub:
FileA: ...
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6
votes
1
answer
118
views
Does a central copyright and license notice cover all the files in a software program?
Some open-source programs have a single copyright and license notice in the README file, while others put a notice in each file in the program.
I prefer the first practice because it makes the code ...
- 323
1
vote
2
answers
5k
views
Can someone explain the basic requirements of Open Source Qt LGPL to a beginner?
I’m a automotive electronic and electrical engineer with little to no software experience.
I need to hire a developer to develop Windows GUI application that is used to configure and program a ...
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5
votes
2
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622
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 ...
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2
votes
2
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147
views
How to properly display the Copyright information in the User Interface or product documentation?
In order to fulfill license obligations (in some cases) one must display the copyright information (when not delivering source code).
Should one display (in GUI or IFU) the copyright information of ...
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4
votes
1
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118
views
Do project owners have to comply with their software's license? [duplicate]
Say that I create an open source project with a license X, that grants user the capacity to edit and distribute my code, but under the same license.
Do I, as the owner and copyright holder, have to ...
- 143
9
votes
1
answer
6k
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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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2
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1
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687
views
Is it correct in general to have both MIT and Apache license for the same project
I am using the javascript library Datejs in my project, the library states in their website that the code is released under the MIT Licence but the code published on their GitHub account is published ...
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3
votes
1
answer
311
views
How should I license my project if it can install GPL-based plugins?
I'm developing a software which has two parts, kernel and plugins, their code are completely separated. Here's the question:
Some of the plugins should be GPL based, as they invoked GPL code.
The ...
- 39
1
vote
1
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88
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Whether to open source a specific project
As the owner of a company that has a Web application, I would like to make that code freely available for people to contribute code to.
There are several places where this is a specific application, ...
- 121
6
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2
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816
views
How to use software published under MIT without copyright notice?
MIT License says:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
However, a few repositories do not have any ...
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0
votes
1
answer
151
views
Can one get all copyrights on derivative software if one add enough new code?
According to german law, can one get all copyrights on software derivative if one added enough new code?
if yes, how is the "percentage of new code" measured?
if yes, are there such paragraphs in ...
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votes
1
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13k
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Can i use a GPLv2 module in my commercial application?
I am developing a commercial wordpress plugin. There is a form module that i have to develop however, i found one already built under GPL2 here
https://github.com/weDevsOfficial/weforms
All other ...
1
vote
4
answers
2k
views
Declaring copyright anonymously
I want to release some software anonymously.
My first idea was to release it to the public domain, but I have found out that it is not a safe practice due to incompatibilities with the legislation of ...
- 141
1
vote
0
answers
43
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can I use CC BY-SA 3.0 media (pictures) in a software partly licensed under a non-derivative license?
I am working on software that contains graphics I didn't make, that are licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Since the software contains other parts I didn't make, I want to put it under two different ...
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1
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2k
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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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10
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750
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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 ...
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