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.
1,230
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License for JavaScript which doesn't permit minification?
I'm writing a JavaScript library and am wondering how I could license it such that developers/user:
must include the license (or a link to it)
can't minify the source code, but must include it as-is
...
- 25.4k
2
votes
1
answer
66
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LGPL 3 and Java package renaming
In my company, we have a library that makes use of a 3rd party library with an LGPL3 license.
Although our library does not extend or modify any of the 3rd party library's code, it provides some ...
- 25.4k
2
votes
1
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369
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Apache 2.0 License redistribute with package/class name change
I have been modifying an open source Apache 2.0 licensed project and now I want to re-distribute the code under the same license but under MY SET OF REPOS as the original company isn't wanting my ...
CommunityBot
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46
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5
answers
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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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0
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44
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If I use AGPL software (hosted on my environment) to populate DB data w/o any code changes, should I open the code of my software that does DB calls?
If I use AGPL service w/o code changes to populate data in the Mongo database and then retrieve this data from DB via my own-written service, should I open-source the code of my service? My own-...
1
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0
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57
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Could a CLA be avoided by simply specifying in the license a particular owner who may grant closed source use? [duplicate]
One of the main purposes of a CLA (contributor license agreement), as I understand it, is to allow some owner of the software to have full rights to relicense the code if desired. This is rather ...
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1
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1
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69
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What happens if I don't attribute for a library that has MIT or Apache license?
I develop a commerical app in android studio and in my project I use some libraries that have MIT or Apache license.
What could possibly happens if I don't attribute the libraries that I downloaded ...
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10
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2
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2k
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Who owns code in a GitHub organization?
I made a project in a GitHub organization and made some commits there. Nobody else touched the repository. Since the default licence on GitHub is all rights reserved, do I maintain all rights to the ...
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2
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1
answer
46
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Licensing of my code when using a GPL-licensed program for code coverage
The program I'm planning to use for obtaining the code coverage of my tests (OpenCppCoverage) is licensed under GPL v3.0, which implies some obligations for those who modify or redistribute this code ...
- 37.4k
2
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1
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57
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If somebody else distributes my GPL program without the source code, am I liable to fulfil written source requests?
What I am asking is: can other people create work / obligations for me to respond to written requests to package up and send some physical media (and collect a reasonable fee, etc.) for the source ...
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11
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4
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2k
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Is there a way to only permit open-source mods for my video game to stop people from stealing code or at least enforce proper attribution?
I want to prevent mod developers from stealing code from other mod developers in my game. The best way that I know how is to only ever support mods that are open-source. I know about the SteamWorkshop ...
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2
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0
answers
33
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Can my open-source package adhere to GPL/LGPL v3 if it has a closed-source dependency?
My plugin dll depends on the presence of Microsoft Excel on a client computer. Excel is not part of the OS. The dependency is a 2 way transfer of data, the dll I created only works if run from inside ...
- 121
2
votes
1
answer
57
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BSD-3 Licensing in Framework's Documentation
I am a Flutter developer, and it's documentation code samples are licensed under BSD-3, does that mean when learning from it and then applying that to my code I should include the license in my code (...
1
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2
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206
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Permissive license that prevents copyleft [duplicate]
I like permissive style licenses (e.g. BSD3) and dislike copyleft ones (e.g. GPL).
I want to develop some OSS permissively, but I want to prevent people from forking it and relicensing it with ...
- 43.1k
2
votes
1
answer
357
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Alpine Linux and package versioning: can the license change in a release patch?
Looking at https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages, almost every single package in Alpine Linux is versioned as a.b.c-rd where a b c d are numbers, d is the "patch release" of the version a.b....
- 37.4k
2
votes
1
answer
61
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Removing font files from Font Awesome - SIL OFL license
I would like to add to my Website the package "Font Awesome". I would like to use only some font files (which are covered by the SIL OFL 1.1 license) and the necessary CSS to use it.
It is ...
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5
votes
2
answers
2k
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Is there a "Free Software Philosophy Advertising" permissive license?
I used to think that spreading the Free Software philosophy through advertising, as companies usually do, would be more moderate and more acceptable to people (more infectious) than spreading the Free ...
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2
votes
1
answer
87
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If I create software that can leverage a CC BY-SA data set, do I have to license the software under the same license?
I'm writing a translation assist & dictionary-like software to assist in translating Japanese to English. To help with this, dictionary datasets in XML format by Electronic Dictionary Research and ...
CommunityBot
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3
votes
1
answer
89
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Is there a license similar to the CC BY-SA license that is copyleft but allows source-unreadable derivatives to be released?
I'm looking for a license that's similar to the CC BY-SA license that allows people to use my code for whatever purpose as long as they license derivative works under the same license. The distinction ...
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2
votes
1
answer
113
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What is the best-practice for commercial vendors who build their offering on top of Open-Source software?
My company is currently developing a commercial software for our clients (it will be offered both under a commercial license for SaaS and also a binary for on-site private network usage). This ...
- 5,763
1
vote
0
answers
54
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What constitutes source code plagiarism? [closed]
I want to know if a software developer can potentially be sued for writing everyday boilerplate code or similar functions at 2 separate software jobs with different clients.
Suppose a software ...
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1
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97
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Why UNIX is not open source?
Why Dennis Ritchie created UNIX under BSD licence if he was rooting for open source?
I'm exploring UNIX history and can't understand why it was not open source. I understand that it was developed in ...
- 43.1k
3
votes
1
answer
474
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Does the Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 license make it mandatory to share derived work?
Let's say that I'm using art works protected by the Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 license. I then modify the art works so that they fit my personal requirements and include them in a commercial ...
CommunityBot
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58
votes
4
answers
16k
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Can I license my project with an open-source license but disallow commercial use?
I'd like to make my project open-source. Is there a free/open-source license that lets me do that, but disallows anyone receiving my project to use it for commercial purposes or monetary gain?
In a ...
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11
votes
4
answers
4k
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Which license suits best when you want users to contribute to your code and not just take it as free beer
Which License is best suited for my open source project. I am developing a web app (a template like) that has potential use in real life applications but also learning outcomes. I would like people to ...
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6
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2
answers
1k
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Using FFmpeg only for decoding in closed source commercial application
There are already lots of questions about FFmpeg licensing but I could not find one for my specific case.
I'm making an application which is able to play video files using FFmpeg (through a LPGL ...
- 43.1k
2
votes
1
answer
106
views
How to put Copyright notice If I use several other code bases (MIT)
If I use piece of code from some other repo which is under MIT licence I can directly use/show their Copyright info in my repo. That part is OK.
But what happenes if I get several pieces of code from ...
CommunityBot
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6
votes
1
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258
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Is the Open Gaming License a type of open source license?
Wizards of the Coast (publishers of the Dungeons and Dragons desktop role playing game) have for years operated under the Open Gaming License.
The License: This License applies to any Open Game ...
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5
votes
2
answers
282
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Non-disclosure agreement for an open source project
I work on a third-party open source project (partly GPL 3, partly Apache 2).
I don't want to disclose my changes right away (but publish them in the future).
Is it legal to require a hired worker whom ...
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0
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0
answers
62
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I believe that the License decision diagram section of Codeberg.org is wrong [duplicate]
As title. Can anyone help me confirming whether my intuition about whether the section "License decision diagram" of on Codeberg.org could be wrong? Quoted those lines from the link:
Do you ...
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4
votes
1
answer
62
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If a CC BY-SA V4.0 dictionary is used to look up meanings of words, is the resulting translation a derivative work?
This is a follow-up question to my previous one. I'm considering writing a manual translation software, where the end user will be writing the entire translation themselves, but the software could ...
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-1
votes
1
answer
50
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If code is published in two places with different licenses and don't know which is the original
If some code is published in two different places by different people, one under the Apache license and one under no license, and I have no way to know which one is the original author (one of them ...
- 14.9k
4
votes
1
answer
186
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How should I license my software if it links statically with glibc?
I have no experience with licensing. I used GitHub to put a license in one of my repositories, which basically uses C. As I didn't want to impose restrictions (the code is a very small utility, I don'...
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0
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0
answers
39
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How to effectively communicate the license of database content?
I'm working on a project make some New Zealand government data available to the public under the Creative Commons license. The access to the data will be directly to a PostgreSQL database (read-only, ...
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6
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5
answers
2k
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Are there any software licenses that allow for everything but changing the license or dual-licensing?
I would like to allow users of my code to make derivatives, but disallow derivatives from imposing any restrictions on the usage of my code. Is there an existing license that would fit this ...
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8
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2
answers
2k
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Does modified server code, used in public website development, which is originally available under GPL2 have to be released to the public?
To be precise, I am referring to MySql source code which is available under GPL2. I want to make certain modifications in the code which is actually for some custom requirement.
The modified MySql ...
- 9,369
2
votes
2
answers
100
views
What to put in header copyright notice after total conversion of library that didn't have license headers?
I want to convert a C# library (not written by myself) licensed under Apache License v2 to C++.
The original C# library has a LICENSE file with the Apache license information, however the individual ...
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0
votes
1
answer
51
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QT on windows - limitations, restrictions, commercial products
I've downloaded the qt online installer from: https://www.qt.io/download-open-source to develop on Windows.
My question is: as long as we respect LGPL are we forced to buy a commercial license (for ...
- 25.4k
8
votes
5
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3k
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Does license prohibition of illicit / malicious use or modification clash with GPL's freedom to modify?
I am building a decentralized community service, where it is critical for each client to run a "legitimate" build version in order for the service to operate properly. The client versions do ...
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10
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4
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2k
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Why does the GPL not specify a jurisdiction or choice of law clause?
tl;dr version Unlike most software licenses, the GPL (at least version 3.0) does not contain a choice of law provision. Why is this, and what provisions are in place to adjudicate disputes in the ...
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2
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In 2018 if I use C++ Qt 5.10.0 to build a closed source application requires open source or commercial license?
I currently have a C# application that I want to convert over to Qt/C++ 5.10.0 but I am having an issue with QT licensing. This application is given away for free, but it has a service that the user ...
13
votes
1
answer
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MariaDB: How can the license being held by a foundation forbid Oracle from buying MariaDB?
I was looking though :
Learning MySQL and MariaDB
[ Russell J.T. Dyer / O’Reilly / 2015 ]
where I came across a licensing Issue.
It says [ Preface Section ] :
"The software license, though, is ...
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4
votes
1
answer
413
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Use of GPL licensed code in unit test source for verifying the operation of non GPL program that analyses source code
Say I have a program (not GPL compatible) that performs static analysis against source code through some pattern matching, similar to a linter.
One way I could write unit tests for my program is to ...
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0
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1
answer
37
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Is it legitimate to extract data from Java VM Specification document?
I'm planning to write a bytecode viewer for Java 17 classfile,
and distribute my work under some permissive license.
In order to keep consistent my implemenation,
I'd like to link my code to
Chapter 4
...
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-2
votes
1
answer
117
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TinyMCE license clarification
I am currently using the "text editor" (so to speak) tinymce. And I'm building an open source project that I plan to upload to github once I finish it. My project is basically like wordpress ...
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0
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1
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29
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Is it legitimate to include Java VM Specification document in my derived work?
I'm planning to make a bytecode viewer for Java 17 classfiles,
and distribute my work under some permissive license.
For convenience of implemenation, I'd like to include
JVMS Chapter 4. The class ...
- 5,763
2
votes
1
answer
58
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Confusion regarding the term source in GPLv3
I was reading https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html to understand about GPLv3 but it seems I am more confused with the term source.
Is the word source referring to source of the library or my ...
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18
votes
4
answers
57k
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Is Java (JRE) still free for commercial use?
United States here. I have a client that I would like to build a small suite of Java 8+ applications for to be installed on their office desktops and servers. This requires the Java Runtime ...
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9
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1
answer
3k
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What are the practical differences between MIT, Apache and BSD licenses?
Non-copy-left licenses are popular. AFAIK their point is mostly to protect the developers from being sued over loss of money or life (compared to no license at all). But I am neither a lawyer nor have ...
- 43.1k
11
votes
5
answers
2k
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Allow non-GPL plugins in a GPL main program
Suppose I'm writing a certain program, which I wish to license under strong copyleft license such as GPLv3. At the moment I have not used any 3rd party GPL code (I think there might be an LGPL library ...
- 111