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.
66 questions from the last 365 days
4
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1
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How to Comply With MIT Licensed SVG In Print
I have found an MIT licensed SVG that I wish to use in print, for instance a business card.
The relevant part of the MIT license:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be ...
- 141
6
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3
answers
1k
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Is the byline part of the license?
I was recently attempting to contribute to a GPLv2+ project, where I created a new file. I set the copyright date to this year, and tried several options for the name, from my name, to "$PROJECT ...
- 161
6
votes
1
answer
1k
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How to attribute which parts of the code are authored by someone else?
I have borrowed some lines of code (suppose just 20 lines of a function) from a GitHub repository that is licensed under the MIT License. I plan to use these lines in my personal project.
Is it ...
- 185
4
votes
2
answers
82
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Is there an open-source license between MPL, LGPL and AGPL that meets these criteria?
I am looking for an open-source license that satisfies the following five conditions:
Copyleft: The license requires that derivative works must also be distributed under the same license (similar to ...
- 189
14
votes
6
answers
6k
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How do I go about rebranding a fully deleted project that used to have a GNU General Public License v3.0 but is now fully inaccessible
The title is pretty much it. There is a fork of this project that I had started making before they wiped all traces of the application. Now I'm stuck with a fully rebranded application that I want to ...
- 151
5
votes
1
answer
448
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Need Help Regarding Licensing for Samsung Kernel Sources
I'm planning to push Samsung Kernel Source to GitHub and need some guidance on the appropriate licensing. Specifically, I'm wondering:
What license should I use for the Samsung Kernel Source?
Can I ...
- 161
2
votes
0
answers
60
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Startup based on my own side project open-sourced through my employer
I work at a FAANG-size company (moonlighting friendly in theory) and have a side project that I've built mostly in my free time, a bit during work hours, and had it recently approved by the legal ...
- 129
7
votes
1
answer
821
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Using MIT Python PyPI package with GPLv2-or-later Python package dependency in non-GPLv2-or-later-compliant project
I have a very specific question in this seemingly gray area.
There is a very popular MIT-licensed PyPI academic Python package
calfem-python.
There is another very very popular GPLv2-or-later-licensed ...
- 173
3
votes
0
answers
36
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How to distribute LGPL2.1 dependency shared lib with a python package?
I am working on python bindings for a C library, which uses LGPL2.1.
My Python bindings for the library link dynamically against it. For the python bindings to work when installed I need to ship them ...
- 131
7
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2
answers
105
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Unclear condition of the GPLv3 Interface Exception
I looked more closely at this FAQ entry on GPL 3.0 Interface Exception and I am a bit confused with the bolded text.
The goal of this exception is to be able to link independent modules, licensed ...
- 3,307
5
votes
1
answer
150
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Is it legal to rename/fork an existing Linux distro for commercial use?
Suppose I take a parent distribution (slackware for example), take its packages and package management scripts, rename the scripts and the packages in a minor way (without changing the verbatim ...
- 53
8
votes
2
answers
1k
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How do I provide exceptions for a GPL3+ game engine?
I'm planning on a game engine project, and I'm looking to use the GPLv3+ to protect the project. The engine will have a scripting language integrated and an editor, so people can make their games and ...
- 215
2
votes
1
answer
66
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If LGPL 2.1 source code is in my project. Does the whole project need to be LGPL? Or just the class that call it?
I'm relatively new to library licenses and come from a game development background.
I'm developing an open-source game development tool that directly includes the source code of an LGPL 2.1 library.
...
2
votes
1
answer
74
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What do I have to do to comply with selling a game on steam if I use the libraries Openssl + Openal-soft + Libsndfile
I would prefer to statically link my game for steam, but if not I’m fine with letting it be dynamic. I just need help with the exact specifics of what I must do to accomplish for selling my software.
8
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1
answer
6k
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I made a license for my X.com account. Is this legally binding?
So I made this license, in the style of GPL3 as a humorous pinned post for my profile on X.com. But now I'm wondering if this is actually legally binding? I would like it to be.
Account Content ...
- 83
5
votes
2
answers
256
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Using AI-generated illustrations in my open source app
Our open source app is rather popular but looks very bland, with some colors but only stock icons and no illustrations.
None of the developers in our community has drawing skills nor vast amounts of ...
- 2,694
5
votes
1
answer
606
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CC BY-SA 2.5 License marked as denied license in the FOSSA tool after upgrading to React Native 0.74 version
We have an existing React Native project that was upgraded from 0.71.0 to 0.74.0 latest version.
We are us a tool FOSSA to scan the license-related issues in the NPM libraries used in the project.
We ...
- 153
3
votes
1
answer
100
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How can I license a project to be as "open" as possible, but deter commercial machine learning models from being trained on outputs?
Are there any licenses or strategies (dual license, etc), that make it difficult to commercialize machine learning (ML) models made from the outputs of a software library? For example this discussion ...
- 31
12
votes
3
answers
2k
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Who owns code contributed to a license-free repository?
I have seen several different posts which suggest "code contributed to a repository inherits the license of the repository contributed to". It is not clear to me what this means when there ...
- 121
14
votes
7
answers
8k
views
Reusing own code at work without losing licence
I have adapted part of a personal project for use in a work project. I want to make sure I retain the right to use my code. Do I need to license it to my employer for this, or is it enough that I used ...
- 293
1
vote
1
answer
111
views
Please help me choosing license for open hardware project
I need a license that:
a) allows distribution remixes under different license;
b) allows any usage of the project, even for commercial purposes;
c) requires original author attribution;
d) suitable ...
- 33
5
votes
1
answer
396
views
Utilising GPLv3 in a closed-source application via HTTP API
I have a question regarding integration of a GPLv3 software into a broader application stack and what I am legally obligated to do under the terms of the license. I browsed the existing threads on ...
- 153
3
votes
0
answers
131
views
Jaspersoft Report Library and Jaspersoft Studio community edition for commercial use
I'm integrating third-party libraries such as Jaspersoft Report Library 7.0 and Jaspersoft Studio 7.0.0 into a Java application to generate reports for a client application. The workflow involves ...
4
votes
1
answer
68
views
Adding autoconverting clause to AGPL?
I was wondering if there is a straightforward way to have AGPL software autoconvert to a BSD-0 license after some arbitrary time (for example, two years), similar to how the BSL works.
I mostly want a ...
- 185
3
votes
0
answers
59
views
How can I properly bundle open source licenses?
I have made an open source app that is licensed under GNU GPL V3.0. I have dependencies that use the MIT, Apache 2.0 and CC-0 licenses. How can I properly include the license info in my app? Is it ...
- 31
3
votes
1
answer
79
views
Using FOSS extensions from Google Web Store outside of Chrome
Is it legal to use a FOSS extension from Google Web Store without registration in ungoogled Chromium or other FOSS browsers?
- 31
4
votes
1
answer
93
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Removing the statement "Powered by" under GPLv3
I would like to know, if I can remove the statement "Powered by GrandNode" from the footer, where GrandNode published under the license GPLv3.
Here is the official website: https://grandnode....
- 41
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Splitting LGPL License into certain folders/files
So my project tree is
Root:
Client
Java
Server
C
LICENCE
README.md
and I licensed it under LGPL v2.1, so my question is, Is it possible to put the LICENCE inside Server/C and inside Client/Java (...
3
votes
1
answer
583
views
My app uses multiple 3rd party libraries. How can I handle their licensing obligations?
Let's say my application is main.py.
And it imports 3 libraries and uses their functions.
Library A is BSD licensed. Library B is MIT lisenced. Library C is Apache 2.0 lisenced.
Which license files do ...
- 41
0
votes
0
answers
22
views
Licensing of transitive packages [duplicate]
I have created an C# appliaction, now and want to distribute it. My application uses some Nuget-packages where each package again references some other packages (transitive packages).
As far as i ...
- 109
3
votes
1
answer
86
views
Is it possible to use library as private confidential in GPL 3.0 Project
I have a project (for context it's Android) that is GPL 3.0 License and wants to append a library as a private non-license or MIT Personal License.
Is it possible to achieve that without violating the ...
- 141
2
votes
1
answer
94
views
How to use licensed sample code
Specifically interested in architecture-samples and architecture-templates. Seems like they're fairly stripped down stuff, whose express purpose is to be reused, started from, modified etc. Likely ...
- 131
3
votes
1
answer
229
views
License choice for a multi-platform C application
I'm trying to understand how OS licensing works for C applications. I developed an application which makes use of the following header files:
errno.h
getopt.h
inttypes.h
signal.h
stdbool.h
stddef.h
...
- 133
3
votes
1
answer
83
views
RHEL9 - Can I use RHEL 9 with just the GPL license or do I need to get a subscription
Could someone clarify the licensing requirements for RHEL9? Can I use RHEL 9 with just the GPL license or do I need to get a subscription?
I'm using the ISO and some packages from the EPEL repository....
1
vote
0
answers
35
views
AGPLv3 license notice adding to each file
So I have added code licensed under AGPLv3 license to my own project. Licensed my own project under AGPLv3 and noticed that there are no code file with license notice included only AGPLv3 license file....
- 53
3
votes
0
answers
44
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Question about AGPLv3. How to state that I modified source code?
So here is what I want to know.
As one Project's code I added to my own uses AGPLv3 license i licensed my own Project as AGPLv3 but there is such a step as "Conveying Modified Source Versions&...
- 53
5
votes
1
answer
318
views
Where to provide a link to the repository in the distributed software?
I have a hosted OS project that uses the MIT license attributed to my user name. I also provide packaged releases of the software for convenience (so users don't need to build and package locally). ...
- 153
0
votes
1
answer
68
views
Can I use GPL 3.0 license project as library to my private project with MIT license
I'm working on a private project and considering integrating a library that is licensed under the GPL 3.0 (GNU General Public License version 3.0). However, my project itself is licensed under the MIT ...
- 141
4
votes
2
answers
319
views
ExtJs GPL license deprecated
I just received the following e-mail from Sencha:
Hi,
We are proactively reaching out to people who have downloaded the GPL version of Ext JS to remind them of the proper use of the license. We are ...
- 43
8
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Do I need permissions to list companies using my library?
I'm maintaining an open-source library, which uses the MIT license. From contributions on GitHub and other discussions, I know of a few companies that use (or at least used) my library.
The MIT ...
- 183
11
votes
2
answers
2k
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Implicit licensing when contributing to an open source project
Imagine I fork a MIT licensed project on GitHub, make some changes and submit a Pull Request (PR). I own the copyright of my changes. The PR is accepted.
A few years later, someone uses the software ...
- 331
2
votes
1
answer
67
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Usage of figures found in a online manual under LGPL 2.1 inside a thesis
I'm writing my PhD thesis and inside that I've used some screenshot that I found inside the online documentation, only to show the purpose and some functionalities of the software.
I'm talking about ...
- 21
2
votes
0
answers
69
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How to open-source code for an ebook-style iOS Qt app but retain control of the content? [duplicate]
Years ago (whenever Qt 5.7 was current), as a contractor I developed a closed source tablet app for a company with (at the time) a commercial license for Qt (they assigned me a license seat). The app ...
- 121
2
votes
1
answer
96
views
Using a FOSS license for binaries created in a hex editor
For about a year and a half, I have been working on a creating series of minimal ELF executables that print terminal control escape sequences to clear the screen. My workflow is a bit backwards - ...
- 188
3
votes
2
answers
153
views
Does GPLv2 allow to charge an unlimited amount as fee for copy transfer?
GPLv2 terms state the following (see below). But does this means to be able to charge an unlimited amount for copy transfer (it may be object code) and the limitation not to exceed distribution fees ...
- 61
5
votes
1
answer
404
views
Correct license for dataset if source data has different licenses
I want to create a new dataset which I want to publish on e.g. Hugging Face. I plan to have multiple versions with different licenses, depending on which data I used.
I now wondered whether I can ...
- 193
2
votes
1
answer
133
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Can one of several heirs of a copyright release it under a Creative Commons license, and if so, how?
Alice created a work and died without publishing it. Bob and Charlie jointly inherited the copyright. All three live(d) in the United States. Bob wants to publish the work under a Creative Commons ...
- 307
7
votes
1
answer
1k
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When updating a package version, what should the license year be?
When creating a new R package version under an existing MIT licence, should the year be [creation_year], [current_year] or [creation_year - current_year]?
- 71
18
votes
1
answer
6k
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PySimpleGUI, until now, has been distributed under the GPLV3, but just became a subscription model. How does that work?
PySimpleGUI, a GUI framework for Python, has previously been published under the LGPLv3. They just announced that they are changing to a subscription model with PysimpleGUI 5, and that previous ...
- 291
3
votes
1
answer
394
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AGPLv3 version of itext
We have a web application (for internal users) using free version of AGPLv3.
The web application is NOT a commercial application. Do we need to use commercial license instead of free version?
- 31