Questions tagged [license-compatibility]
License compatibility is the comparison of two or more licenses to determine if certain usages and actions can be made. Use this tag if the question would like to determine the compatibility of licenses, or their individual clauses.
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How can I determine if two open source licenses are compatible with each other?
Given two open source projects, each with different licenses, are there metrics or resources I can use to determine if it is legitimate to copy code from one of the projects to the other?
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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 ...
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Can I copy-paste a snippet from Stack Overflow into my GNU-GPL project?
I have found on Stack Overflow a 10-lines block of code that does exactly what I want.
There is no license information in the post nor on the answerer's profile page, so the CC BY-SA 3.0 license of ...
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If I'm using a GPL 3 library in my project, can I license my project under MIT license?
If I'm using a library that is licensed under GPL v3 in my project, can I license my project under the MIT license? I tried to read the GPL v3 text but I cannot understand it without your assistance.
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Can I use my own GPL'ed code in my closed source program?
Let's say that program A was made by me, with me being the sole copyright holder. If I license this program under the GPL-3.0, can I use that program in program B that is closed source?
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Can I modify an open source license to require that I be notified?
I often use the MIT license for my projects.
But recently I've had the thought that I really would like to be notified if someone forked my software, whether it's for personal use, released or not I ...
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Pros and Cons of using MPL-2.0 license?
I want to license my project (hosted on GitHub) under MPL-2.0, which looks like a reasonable choice. But since I'm not a lawyer, it's hard to estimate long-term benefits and consequences of this ...
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What are the differences between GPL V2 and V3 licenses?
One of the most widely used and most popular free and open source software licences is the General Public License. I want to know in simple terms: what are the differences between GPL Version 2 and ...
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Copyfree Open Innovation License compatibility
I'm interested in the Copyfree Open Innovation License as a simpler alternative to Apache 2.0 (it is a permissive license with an explicit patent grant). But because it's not so popular, not much ...
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Can I release under AGPL a program that uses a GPL library?
I just wrote a program that embeds and uses a GNU-GPL library (GPLv3 or at your discretion any later version).
Can I release my program under the GNU AGPL v3 license?
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Can I link a Apache 2.0 library into software under GPLv2?
The Apache 2.0 License has a built-in linking exception:
For the purposes of this License, Derivative Works shall not include works that remain separable from, or merely link (or bind by name) to ...
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Can I "upgrade" the version of CC BY-SA from 3.0 to 4.0 in my modification?
What I'm doing:
I'm adapting a work licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported license to a different language.
I'm indicating the original work and its license.
I'm indicating that I have made changes to ...
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Why is GPLv2 incompatible with GPLv3?
As I understood in this wonderful answer, GPLv3 and GPLv2 code can't be used simultanously in the same product.
Why?
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Combining code written under different licenses (Eiffel Forum License, MIT and Apache), what are my options?
So I'm new to all this licensing jazz, and I've just started work on a project I'd like to one day publish as open source.
I've found a couple of projects so far that have code to accomplish stuff ...
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Are permissive licenses (MIT/BSD/zlib) compatible with CC-BY?
Permissive licenses like MIT only require that you include the license text if you redistribute.
CC licenses that have the BY part require that the original authors are attributed, but in flexible ...
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How is the BSD GPL-compatible?
The BSD license says that derivative works may be distributed under the following conditions:
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted ...
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Does a host application's license apply to plug-ins written for it?
This was prompted by another question which reminded of a past experience.
Consider the following:
An open-source project supports a plug-in architecture
The project is released under a copyleft ...
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GPL V3 with OpenSSL Exception
I've decided to license some code I have yet to release under the GPL v3. However, OpenSSL is used quite a bit in the software and I know that the two licenses are explicitly cited as being ...
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Can I license Python project under 3-clause BSD while it has GPL-based dependencies
I'm working on an open source Python project and we have plans to use GPLv2-licensed library python3-xlib, but we will not distribute it with our library. So user can install it by pip install our-lib ...
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Locking myself from ever changing license
Is there any way, that I can lock myself from ever changing the repository license to non open-source one?
These is this trend with open-source companies, that once they gain enough press, and enough ...
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Are CDDL and GPL really incompatible?
Wikipedia seems to suggest that CDDL and GPL are incompatible, yet no one knows for sure why or how.
Why and how are the CDDL and GPL are incompatible?
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Are software licenses version-specific?
When you put a license in your software, is it bound to all the versions of your software, or only a specific version?
If I have licensed my software version 1 under license A, and then I developed ...
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How does one combine differently licensed code in one open source program?
I'm the author of WorldPainter. It's licensed according to the GPL v3, but I am about to include some code (dynmap) that is licensed according to the Apache License version 2.0.
According to both ...
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Can Apple require users to accept the Xcode/iOS license to use git?
After launching an upgrade of XCode on a MacOS Sierra, calling git in a
terminal suprisingly results in:
$ git
Agreeing to the Xcode/iOS license requires admin privileges,
please re-run as root via ...
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Is there a reason to prefer the SimPL over the GPL? Does it carry the same legal weight?
I just came across the SimPL License which is described as:
This Simple Public License 2.0 (SimPL-2.0 for short) is a plain language implementation of GPL 2.0. The words are different, but the ...
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Is Stack Exchange's CC-BY-SA v3.0 content compatible with the GPL?
Currently, all user submitted content is licensed under "cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required". This shows up at the bottom of each page:
user contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 ...
user756
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How to licence a project which includes MIT, BSD, Modified BSD, and New BSD libraries
I've been working on a project for a while, and I'm almost ready to release it, but I've been more concerned with getting it to build than legal considerations, and now I'm not at all sure where I ...
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MIT-licensed project with CC-BY-SA dependency
I have a project (code) that I am wanting to license as MIT. It has a few dependencies, mostly assets (icons and images). Some dependencies are MIT and I include their licenses in the source, but a ...
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Which licenses give me a guarantee that a software I'm installing is completely open-source, free of closed-source dependencies or components?
I have a question about free vs open source software that's more about practical implications from the user's perspective. I'll explain the mindset first before the actual question, so you can ...
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Are licenses affected if the author adds conflicting clauses alongside?
I see this one quite a lot: an author releases something under a standard free/open license (i.e. not a crayon license), but on the same release page adds a clause that conflicts with the license. I.e....
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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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Can I post code examples with GPL software on Stack Overflow?
Suppose there is a Python library called g which is licensed under GPL v2.0 (or v3.0). Suppose further that the library is sufficiently complex that it contains some C/C++ component(s) that are ...
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Can I have one license cover part of a software and another covering the other half?
Scenario:
Lets say I have a software I have been developing. I am about to release it but I first have to apply some licenses.
Question:
Suppose I want to release part of the software (the code) ...
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How can I properly fork a project that is dual-licensed AGPL/Commercial?
I'd like to use UniPDF, which is a Go project to handle PDF documents, in my project.
UniPDF has a dual license: AGPL and commercial while my project is licensed under the GPLv3.
I'd like to fork ...
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is CC BY license GPL compatible? CC BY vs CC0
CC0 license is GPL compatible. A component with such license can be included in GPL-licensed product.
Is this true also for CC BY license?
What is the difference between CC0 and CC BY licenses? ...
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Linking from LGPL 2.1 software to Apache 2.0 library
The FSF claims that GPL v2 is incompatible with Apache 2.0 and that linking to a library generally creates a derivative work of this library.
However, the linking exception of the LGPL allows ...
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Can I use GPL v3 for source code and CC BY-SA v3 for comments?
I have some source code for which I am the copyright holder. I want to release it under the GPL, but when it was closed source, I copied a bunch of a stuff from Wikipedia for a couple of classes and ...
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Is it possible to release a project under the GPL if it contains MIT-licensed libraries?
Specifically the Symfony PHP framework, which is MIT licensed. I've read that the two are compatible, but I want to make sure that a system I develop can be released complete under the GPL.
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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 ...
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How is the Expat (MIT) license compatible with the GPL?
Suppose I come across Project G, an open-source project licensed under the GNU GPL, and Project M, an open-source project licensed under the Expat license (also called the MIT license). I want to ...
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Can I use a proprietary library in my GPL'd program?
The case of proprietary programs linking to GPL'd libraries has been discussed thoroughly. However the inverse case - a GPL'd program is linking to a proprietary library - is rarely mentioned.
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What counts as adaptation for using code licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 in software licensed under GPLv3?
Since 2015-10-08, GPLv3 is listed as one-way compatible license for CC BY-SA 4.0:
[…] you may license your contributions to adaptations of BY-SA 4.0 materials under GPLv3, but you may not license ...
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Is the Facebook BSD+Patents licence (aka "The React Licence") compatible with the GPL?
Is the Facebook BSD+Patents licence compatible with the GPL (GPLv3), in the sense that one could:
use code licensed under BSD+Patents, as part of a project, the rest of which you write yourself (own ...
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Can software licenced in Eclipse Public Licence be used in a project with GPL?
JUnit is licenced under Eclipse Public Licence which, according to Wikipedia, is incompatible with GPL. So does this mean if you’re working on a project licenced with GPL you can’t use JUnit? It's too ...
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Which license can protect a software to be distribute without changes under a different name?
I'm looking for a license that fit in the following points:
Software source code will be public so anyone can read it or use it.
Anyone can contribute or add modifications to the source code (pull ...
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Can I use CodeProject code in a GPL project?
I have an open-source project that I originally wanted to license under MIT, but since I'm using a GPLv3 component that I can't quite get rid of (namely, the .g4 ANTLR grammar file that I'm using to ...
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How to deal with unofficial/proprietary licences - are open source projects of this type really open?
Recently I was confronted with several projects that claim to be open source. I was happy to find their source code on a public repository but when looking at the license I was wondering why they do ...
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Creating an open-source project that includes Open Game License 1.0a content
Looking through Wizards of the Coast Open Game License 1.0a, and reading around it, it seems it is a weak copyleft license, where anyone can distribute content that derives from OGL content, provided ...
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What License can I use in my project if I use CC-BY/CC-0 Music?
I did a google search and read through some license information, blog etc. here and there but I'm just not sure whether I can use CC-BY/CC-0 Music in my OpenSource Project no matter what license I use ...
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How can I judge the "strength" of a licence?
A quote from the FOSSA blog, How to Apply a License to Your Open Source Software Project:
In a nutshell, if your dependencies are distributed under open source
licenses different than the one you are ...
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