Questions tagged [licensing]
Licensing refers to applying a license to an area of software. Only use this tag if your question concerns the application of a license to an area of interest. If your question concerns a specific license, use the tag that corresponds to your license. For more general questions, use this tag.
1,277
questions
0
votes
1
answer
12
views
Is BSD-3-Clause Variant compatible with BSD-3-Clause?
My Python package has a dependency of an open-source package with a BSD-3-Clause-LBNL variant license. It seems the only difference between this variant and the original BSD-3-Clause license is the ...
- 101
-1
votes
2
answers
30
views
A project states no license, but imports GPL code. Can I assume an implied license? [duplicate]
According to the answers to What can I assume if a publicly published project has no license?, If a repository has no license, then all rights are reserved and it is not Open Source or Free. You ...
- 383
1
vote
0
answers
17
views
How should be a SPDX license name when extracting from another file content?
Following the SPDX simple license expressions and the License identifier field example, when creating a custom license that's not listed in licenses list (including exception), I could use LicenseRef-...
- 111
3
votes
1
answer
39
views
Using GPLv2 License in an internal company software that develops physical products
There are many questions in here regarding licenses, however, I did not find this specific scenario.
I have the following situation:
There is an internal company software, which is used for producing ...
VsIHar
-1
votes
0
answers
22
views
Is there a software license that says anyone can do what they want with it except sell it or sell modified versions of it? [duplicate]
From what I can tell GPL lets folks modify your code and sell it and MIT lets them do whatever they want.
I plan on charging for my application. I am okay if someone wants to tweak it and use it for ...
- 107
1
vote
1
answer
62
views
License R code when using R packages with different license types
I am navigating licensing, and this is very confusing.
I produced a lot of R code to analyze data for a research article that will be published on a peer-reviewed journal.
Reading here License for R ...
- 111
8
votes
1
answer
977
views
How should an Open-Source project that can be integrated into proprietary software be licensed?
Say I have a personal software project that I would like to be Open-Source. 100% of the source code for my version of that project is available online for everyone (e.g. on GitHub). I'd the like to ...
- 303
3
votes
1
answer
99
views
License like LGPL-3.0, but owner can sell source to 3rd party freely and contributors can't say no or revoke code
TL;DR:
Basically "Hey, look, I felt your soft A lacked this so I made this Soft B. You can buy it and add it or do whatever you want with it but don't be a dick and give credit where it's due. ...
- 133
6
votes
1
answer
2k
views
An open-source license that seems impossible to comply with
I am a math professor, and I'm considering pushing my department to adopt OpenStax textbooks. These are free, and the website says that they are offered under the CC BY-NC-SA license.
However, the ...
- 163
1
vote
0
answers
30
views
How to license website articles under a different licence to source code [duplicate]
I'm making a personal website whose source code I intend to license under a permissive licence like Apache 2.0, for example, I might host the code on GitHub and use GitHub Pages to host the site. But ...
- 19
3
votes
1
answer
55
views
Allowances/rules for including binary/compiled files from another OSS project into my own repo?
Long story made short: Have a python based repo in Github currently. It relies on some external software in its compiled/executable form as a simple popen call. Currently it relies on the user to ...
- 75
1
vote
1
answer
63
views
Dual-licensing model
Imagine I have a program which is licensed by GPLv3. Now will I be able to apply a second license for non-open one? It says that anyone who wants to copy, distribute, modify my program needs my ...
- 21
2
votes
1
answer
66
views
Publish open source
I use iText in my application
Is the application considered open source if I put the AGPL3 license when publishing the application on Google Play only?, or I must to do something else to considered ...
- 23
5
votes
2
answers
248
views
Do public foundation registered members constitute "organization" in the GPL distribution context?
From this question:
Is making and using multiple copies within one organization or company
“distribution”?
No, in that case the organization is just making the copies for
itself. As a consequence, a ...
- 479
1
vote
1
answer
78
views
Does GPL apply to optional and disabled code and no linking
I am using mostly LGPL or compatible libraries, but there's also a few that are available under GPL & compatible only.
I understand that GPL requirements apply to software distribution, in other ...
- 479
1
vote
0
answers
56
views
Understanding PDFtk and GPL license
I work for a local county that will generate our local tax statements for free via a web service consumable by a public URL. For example, the web service would generate and stream the PDF using the ...
- 131
5
votes
1
answer
259
views
Legal and Usage Questions about an Extension of Whisper Model on GitHub
I recently came across an extension version of the Whisper model from OpenAI on GitHub, (https://github.com/linto-ai/whisper-timestamped) and I'm interested in using it in my Python project. However, ...
- 51
5
votes
2
answers
3k
views
"Pure Copyleft" Software Licenses? (with no additional restrictions)
TL;DR How can we replace the GPLv3 requirements of source disclosure + explicit license copy with something more subtle like "This work allows the users [...], and any derived work (recursively) ...
- 61
4
votes
1
answer
772
views
"Modding" GPL Software and using in a multi-part commercial application
Here's my dilemna:
I own proprietary software that generates HTML.
I want my end users to use a GPL v3 open source licensed software that renders HTML in a special GUI. But I want to white label/...
- 43
4
votes
1
answer
113
views
Apache License 2.0 compatibility with source code licensed under GPL 2 with classpath exception
I am working on an open-source project that is governed by the Apache License 2.0, and I want to make use of Java source code from OpenJDK 11, which is governed by the GPL 2 license with classpath ...
- 43
3
votes
0
answers
89
views
Publishing GPLv3 code on Steam
I own a project called Luminol currently licensed under GPlv3 I'd like to distribute on Steam. If possible, I'd like to keep Luminol as GPLv3, mainly to ensure modifications of Luminol are public. I'...
- 31
2
votes
1
answer
74
views
Obligations implied by the Apache 2.0 License for an open source project
I'm using two libraries under Apache 2.0 license opennlp and crux. The source code of my Android opensource app will be on Github. And the app will be released on Google Play Store. What are all my ...
- 51
4
votes
1
answer
339
views
Is a CLA necessary?
PDF4QT is released under LGPL3+.
If you open a PR, the maintainer asks you to sign a CLA.
Is this necessary?
My code must be released under LGPL3+ as well, otherwise I'll fail to fulfill the license ...
- 297
2
votes
1
answer
62
views
Are proprietary licenses in an Apache 2.0 usable
I found a Github project licensed under Apache 2.0 that I would like to use in another project. This project contains libraries that seems to be proprietary and that the owner of the project might ...
- 21
2
votes
0
answers
164
views
Commercial usage of sentence-transformers/multi-qa-mpnet-base-cos-v1
We are trying to use a HuggingFace Embedding model - multi-qa-mpnet-base-cos-v1 for an internal Large Language Model powered application. While reading the documentation it says (not verbatim):
For ...
5
votes
2
answers
90
views
Simple free culture attribution license?
I'd like to license my creative works that are not code (including the project's documentation) under a license that is like the MIT license, but does apply to non-code. The CC BY is too big to fit ...
- 51
-1
votes
1
answer
98
views
How to use Sakai free template [duplicate]
I am very new to web dev and trying to use the Sakai react template, https://github.com/primefaces/sakai-react, as a starter to my startup project. Am I allowed to use it as much as I want for ...
8
votes
4
answers
2k
views
What's the meaning (qualifications) of "machine" in GPL's "machine-readable source code"?
I'm trying to understand what is (not) a "machine" in GPL's "machine-readable source code".
GPL requires you to share (a) the preferred-form-of-the-work-for-making-changes-in-it, ...
- 181
7
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Do physical assets created directly from GPLed, copyleft digital designs (not programs or libraries) acquire the same license?
Situation: I use LGPL licensed software to create some digital assets that contain original designs. I don't modify the original LGPL software in the process; I just use it. The primary use of the ...
- 210
2
votes
1
answer
92
views
Creative Common license excluding non-humans, excluding web scraping?
The Creative Common license (and other licenses as well) gives (or not) authorizations to other humans to use, adapt, and modify licensed work. However, more and more, the licensed work is being used ...
- 131
2
votes
1
answer
90
views
Code licensed by Apache 2.0 license with the AWS SDK for Javascript v3, maybe licensed by other license (MIT)?
I've got a doubt about the AWS Code license, specifically, I've been using fragments of code from the AWS repository for the Javascript SDK v3 interacting with Cognito. In some fragments of code, for ...
- 21
1
vote
1
answer
94
views
Difference between licensing terms of code-server vs. VS Code Server
I am trying to understand the licensing limitations if I want to bundle code-server with my cloud application.
As per the docs, Out of the box, code-server is simply VS Code in the browser
Since code-...
- 127
2
votes
1
answer
76
views
GNU license for "Open Metronome" - what license applies to beats generated with it?
If i am using the GNU-licensed software "Open Metronome" (https://sourceforge.net/projects/openmetronome/) to create the basic rhythm of my own music, I am wondering if I can freely ...
- 21
6
votes
2
answers
258
views
Can I accept donations under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0?
There is a repository of code that I would like to use to run a website. The code is under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license, as the ...
- 95
-2
votes
1
answer
150
views
Publishing an application on play store....licenses and royalties doubts
I've built an Android application in Kotlin, and it uses these libraries :
...
implementation "androidx.camera:camera-core:${camerax_version}"
implementation "androidx.camera:...
- 23
3
votes
1
answer
125
views
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 rights as a contributor to the original repository on Github
There is a repository of code that I have made pull requests and added code to, and that code that I have contributed is in the master branch. The code is under the Creative Commons Attribution-...
- 95
2
votes
1
answer
88
views
What's the difference between GPL licence and CECILL-2.1?
These two licenses are for open-source code. Does the CECILL-2.1 give rights to sell the open source code without author notification, as it says in Article 5?
5.3 RIGHT OF DISTRIBUTION
In particular,...
- 147
3
votes
1
answer
182
views
What rights do Artistic 2.0 licence gives to the Author?
I am not sure that this license grants the Author the right of referencing its name in future modifications of Open-Source code. Does this license grant the Licensee the right to sell the modified ...
- 147
2
votes
1
answer
55
views
Does it mean that Author of the source code is equal to the Holder?
I'm analyzing the "Cea Cnrs Inria Logiciel Libre License, version 2.1 (CECILL-2.1)" software licence and don't clearly understand something. This licence has the following definitions:
...
- 147
0
votes
0
answers
98
views
Include MySQL Connector/J in a commercial product [duplicate]
There are a few questions about MySQL licensing already out there, but none of them have a definitive "yes" or "no" answer, so with the risk of being flagged as "duplicate&...
- 109
9
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Which SPDX-License-Identifier should I use for "Public Domain"?
My concrete example is IANA's tzdb version 2023c. As specified in https://data.iana.org/time-zones/tzdb-2023c/LICENSE the case is clear "if the files date.c, newstrftime.3, and strftime.c are ...
- 91
4
votes
1
answer
226
views
Can I notarize my MacOS package that contains LGPL dynamic library?
I am commercial software developer, and my piece of software dynamically calls the LGPL v2.1/LGPL v3 library. Am I allowed to notarize my installation package that includes LGPL dynamic loaded library ...
- 41
2
votes
0
answers
48
views
Do people/companies using my library need to include my OSS licensing notice? [duplicate]
I made a library with which I distribute an opensource-licences-readme.txt file disclosing which open-source projects I have leveraged and including their copyright notices and other required info.
I ...
- 121
3
votes
1
answer
242
views
Is there a license that explicitly exempts AI from all conditions?
Are there any FOSS licenses that explicitly allow the use of the software as AI training data with no restrictions, and explicitly disclaim any copyright interest in the output of the AI?
I'm ...
- 287
3
votes
1
answer
85
views
I want to receive contributions to my project but have an agreement with third parties that wants to use it
I have a client that wants to opensource their project to receive contributions and leave the code as a public good. The software might be used by individual institutions, meaning each institution ...
2
votes
0
answers
45
views
License that grants free use for non commercial purposes but asks for some money for commercial use [duplicate]
I have developed material to teach a programming class. It is an old style class, thought for a teacher teaching to students, with slides and examples.
The material is made of a website, where the ...
- 121
17
votes
5
answers
5k
views
Is there a license like MIT that explicitly forbids the use of AI?
I am aware that the licenses of e.g. code on Github are currently not observed when training AIs and that there are licenses such as AGPL that require the code to be disclosed. But is there already a ...
- 173
16
votes
5
answers
2k
views
How do I require commercial users of the output of my software to give attribution?
I've got some code which produces some output files, this project is open source under GPLv3. I've also got some people reaching out to me and asking if they can use the output files (they don't care ...
- 303
-2
votes
1
answer
68
views
Choosing appropriate license for my project [duplicate]
I’m planning to write an open-source OS. So these are the thing I want to include with my license:
For non-commercial use, I give users unlimited rights to copy, distribute, edit my OS, but they must ...
- 21
3
votes
1
answer
190
views
Using OpenSSL in Visual Studio project
I have created a project for an application written in c++ that uses OpenSSL to implement encryption algorithms. I posted the project on GitHub, it is currently a private repo. There is an Apache 2.0 ...
- 31