All Questions
Tagged with license-change or relicensing
36 questions
95
votes
6
answers
17k
views
How can a project be relicensed?
I've found out that the license I picked for my project does not quite do what I wanted it do (bad research).
Now I want to change the license. Is it as simple as changing the LICENSE.txt in the root?...
- 2,248
51
votes
5
answers
10k
views
Can there be a copyright on negative code?
This is a hypothetical question, but I am curious. Feel free to ignore it, when it seems too theoretical for you.
Some people may know the situation that you implement a feature and in the end you ...
- 821
39
votes
7
answers
16k
views
Can I take BSD licensed code and distribute it under GPL?
Or in more general terms: Can I take code which is licensed under a permissive open source license (like the BSD license) and distribute it under a copyleft free software license (like the GPL)?
...
- 493
80
votes
3
answers
18k
views
If I change the license of my project, can someone use the old license by navigating through Git history?
I am creating an open-source library in JavaScript and using Git to control versions and history.
I have several commits in which the LICENSE file is X (for example, MIT), but I would like to change ...
- 909
28
votes
4
answers
4k
views
If I include some GPL code in my project, can I release it as BSD?
I have scientific software that I would like to release under the BSD 3-clause licence, but it includes some old code that was released under GPL.
Can I still package it all and release as BSD?
- 417
18
votes
5
answers
2k
views
May someone else apply a license to CC0 material?
Alice licensed her work under CC0 1.0.
May Bob take Alice’s work and publish it under another Creative Commons license (e.g., CC BY-SA)?
If yes, may Bob publish it under his own name (i.e., not ...
- 5,700
9
votes
1
answer
502
views
How should I re-license the scaffold code for my new application? (it is licensed under MIT)
If you notice the following scaffold starter kit source code is licensed under MIT throughout the code base. Even the configuration file contain a header of MIT licensed by the creator.
Assuming, I ...
- 191
1
vote
1
answer
597
views
Can I change license of my GPL project? [duplicate]
I have created a project from scratch and made it available online under the GPL license. Can I release a new version of the same project that does not have the GPL license?
I would also like to know ...
66
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Relicensing content under CC-BY-SA
I have compiled a body of work from numerous contributors, who all licensed their individual works to me under CC-BY-SA version 3.
Can I now instead redistribute their work under CC-BY-SA version 4?
- 764
35
votes
7
answers
8k
views
Is it possible to close an open source project?
If yes, what are the consequences of Open Source projects being discontinued, if it's done by a large organization?
As per this post,
the older version of project can still be used under the same old ...
- 499
20
votes
2
answers
709
views
Can I license a project which I have already released without a license?
If I have put my code in one of the online repositories and have made it public but haven't licensed it... (to which the policy is that you retain the copyright).
Is it enough to just commit a ...
- 3,117
16
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Relicensing an MIT licensed project under the GPL that has non code contributions from others
I have an Android Game I've written that I released under the MIT license. Recently, there have been several people who have downloaded the source of my application, added ads and uploaded it to the ...
- 163
26
votes
1
answer
3k
views
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
19
votes
4
answers
6k
views
How can I protect the code from being 'rephrased' by AI to avoid license limitations?
I'm thinking of such issue (from the position of an open source/source available software developer).
In our days it is very easy to rephrase every text with the help of AI so that the meaning remains ...
- 291
18
votes
2
answers
8k
views
Can I relicense my own GPL code into Apache/MIT? [duplicate]
Suppose that I distribute my own code with a GPL license, even though the code use just external MIT or Apache code. In particular, no preexisting GPL code is in it.
Can I later relicense it under ...
- 307
16
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Is putting a page with javascript in it considered a redistribution
Imagine, I published a page on the web. It contains some javascript code, which uses open source library. Is it in general considered redistribution?
On one hand, it's a redistribution. You put code ...
13
votes
1
answer
394
views
How does re-licensing without the approval of authors work (eg, wikimedia case)?
Wikipedia (and any other Wikimedia product) change to a dual licence since 01/08/2009. As I understand, that implies they redistribute GFDL licensed text in CC-BY-SA without asking every author (wich ...
- 263
11
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Remove BSD LICENSE file while importing code into GPL project
Can LICENSE file be removed from 3rd party BSD project that is merged with GPLed code? There are license headers in each file, but files will be modified, so BSD license in them will no longer be ...
11
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is a license bound to a commit?
Lets say there is some software hosted in a public github git repository under some license A. The owner and copyright-holder now decides to relicense the source-code to another license B. If i would ...
- 213
9
votes
2
answers
802
views
Does it make sense to license my content under a more restrictive license if it's licensed CC-BY-SA?
Let's say that I make a post on a Stack Exchange site. That content is owned by me, but I gave the company a perpetual and irrevocable license under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0. As ...
- 1,792
8
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Why does the clause 3 of 4-clause BSD makes it incompatible with GPL?
As explained on the GNU GPL site, the 4-clause BSD is incompatible with GPL because of the clause 3 which states:
All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
must ...
- 1,370
8
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Can someone re-license an adaptation of my CC BY-NC materials under commercial terms?
In the comments below this answer, it is stated that while there is no ShareAlike clause (that would be CC BY-NC-SA), you would not be allowed to re-license Adapted Materials under commercial terms.
...
- 9,205
7
votes
2
answers
191
views
Global donor to OSI approved licenses
I have some small projects under different open source licenses (I like BSD and GPLv2).
I would like to license some new projects under an OSI approved license but make sure any other OSI-approved ...
- 181
7
votes
2
answers
775
views
Does the BSD licence implicitly apply to derived work?
Moved from the discussion of this answer, which makes the following claim about BSD licences:
The 3BSD licence requires (in clause 1) that your copyright notices be preserved, and that some licence ...
- 171
6
votes
1
answer
559
views
Who is responsible for code being in the public domain?
Recently, I wanted a certain functionality that can be difficult to implement due to many special cases and subtle details in technical specifications. So I did a websearch and quickly found existing ...
- 161
6
votes
2
answers
521
views
Which licenses do "not contradict the terms and conditions" of AFL v. 3.0?
The Academic Free License 3.0 explicitly allows distributing copies of the work "under any license of your choice that does not contradict the terms and conditions, including Licensor's reserved ...
- 271
5
votes
1
answer
6k
views
How to retain complete copyright on a GitHub open source project
I'm about to start a project and make it 'open source' cause I really like it, and would fit perfectly my project spirit. The project is divided in 2 parts:
The main application, whose anyone could ...
- 153
5
votes
1
answer
418
views
Relicensing a fork of a GPL project and source code distribution requirements
(Reposted in here because this is the more correct section.)
So the situation is this: I run a project which is a fork of an emulator licensed under GPL v2, my fork respects that and has not ...
- 53
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Can I take MIT licensed code and distribute it under BSD?
There is django-auth-kerberos (MIT) which I want to cherry-pick as initial implementation and include+modify as a plugin to python-social-auth/social-core (BSD). Does the MIT license permit this? Are ...
4
votes
0
answers
326
views
How can i change the license of an open source project? [duplicate]
What is the good way to change the license of an opensource project?
I guess it depends of the agreements of the contributors
Do i need 100% approval?
What if one contributor disagree or one ...
- 141
4
votes
1
answer
615
views
Merge, rebrand, relicense projects
There are two libraries under MIT, that do the same thing, each with some pros and cons. I'd like to merge them, effectively reworking the public API, but keeping the underlying logic (code). The ...
- 143
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Can LGPL 2.1 licenses software be re-published under GPL 3.0?
I have software licensed under LGPL 2.1 and I want to modify it and re-publish the whole software under the GPL 3.0 license. Is this legally possible?
I think so, but I'm not completely sure.
LGPL 2....
3
votes
1
answer
557
views
What must you include in a derived work of an MIT project?
I am very confused about how the MIT license works in detail. In layman's terms, I understand the following:
If you distribute copies of MIT source, then you must include the license, and the rights ...
- 366
3
votes
1
answer
911
views
How did memtest86 transition from GPL to closed-source?
Memtest86, a popular software for RAM diagnostics, was initially developed as open source (GPLv2). Version 3 was forked into a separate project, Memtest86+, also distributed under GPL terms. Source ...
- 1,370
2
votes
1
answer
685
views
Copyright of modifications and derivative works of Python License 2 licensed software
I am writing a Python package in which I plan to vendorize a modified copy of part of another package that was released under Python License 2 (it is not part of the PSL and not subject to any other ...
- 123
1
vote
1
answer
352
views
Most fitting software license for customized client work?
I am struggling with this question about a GitHub project of mine (MIT license). A client wanted me to customize it in a certain way and sell him the customizations (the customizations do not work ...
- 261