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.

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How do I detect an AGPL violation?

For client side code, even if it is obfuscated or is just a binary, I can imagine there might be ways of doing this, but if I have some server-side AGPL licensed code, how am I supposed to know that ...
pulsejet's user avatar
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3 answers
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Is there an institution that accepts and promotes open hardware licenses?

In the software world the FSF and the OSI both accept licenses as free/open. They also promote licenses for usage. In the hardware world some open source licenses have been created, like the TAPR Open ...
Mnementh's user avatar
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Do I need to show branding for TinyMCE (self hosted, free usage license)?

I want to use TinyMCE rich text editor in one of our project. We are using angular warpper of TinyMCE. We will host the tinymce.min.js in our servers (not tinymce cloud). Exact steps mentioned at end ...
Akshay's user avatar
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Open Source Music

Is there an existing way to make music in an open source way (similarly to developing software on Github with a public domain license) ? If not, is open-source music producing actually something that ...
Nico's user avatar
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Properly licensing my software on GitHub

When releasing software on GitHub, I usually state something in the Readme which reads like "Code written by [name and alias], licensed under GPLv3". Is this sufficient? Or do I need to ...
Luatic's user avatar
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Does a central copyright and license notice cover all the files in a software program?

Some open-source programs have a single copyright and license notice in the README file, while others put a notice in each file in the program. I prefer the first practice because it makes the code ...
Cyker's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
382 views

Can I move an in-line license to a file?

I am currently using a library that is licensed under MIT. Each file of the library has a in-line comment containing the standard MIT license text in full length, which is kind of repetitive in my ...
Captain Treibholz's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
3k views

Using an MIT licensed library in my project

I am using a library that is under the MIT license. I never used a library that I needed to include the license before, so I have no idea where to add them. I read that I should add them in my file, ...
hakuna matata's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
136 views

Choosing a license based on conditions or an extensible license

I have several open source projects and now I really got to a question of choosing a license. They all are somewhat licensed, but in a noob way. I don't think I'll find something meeting all of the ...
ZeroUnderscoreOu's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
2k views

Do the licenses of dependencies matter if the dependencies are not actually shipped by my software?

I have a github repository that I plan on making public, and I'm in the process of choosing a license for it. It's a Python project that utilizes a number of open source libraries. The code for those ...
ticster's user avatar
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1 answer
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Using public domain code within Apache-or-MIT licensed project

I'm interested in borrowing functions from a file in a project dual-licensed as MIT-or-UNLICENSE in my package that I intend to also be dual-licensed as Apache-or-MIT. Is this possible? How should I ...
Radish's user avatar
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I put someone else's name in MIT license by mistake and then changed it back to my name. The other person is insisting I keep their name on it

I made an open-source blog theme(template) based on Hugo's static web page generator. This is my first step to the open-source world. So I didn't know much about license things. I copied and pasted ...
zzossig's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
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License only specified in package.json, no LICENSE file

I found a github repo with a package.json with a line saying: "license": "BSD-2-Clause" However, this repo: does not have a LICENSE file at all no single file inside the repo has a header ...
jeanpaul62's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
2k views

Redistributing MSVC runtime components with GPL application

A library I used in my native Visual C++ application was GPLv3-licensed; I found the GPL acceptable, and thus I was planning to make my application GPL-licensed as well. The application depends on ...
Pi Programs's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
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Can GPL with linking exception be linked with GPL and non-GPL simultaneously?

Let's say I have: A GPL module with linking exception. A non-GPL module. A pure-GPL module. I know that module 1 can be linked with module 2. My questions are: Can I link module 1 with module 3? ...
oarcas's user avatar
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How can a GPLv2 dependency affect licensing of adjacent components that form an aggregate project?

I've read some of the GPL questions on here that seem relevant, but I haven't found an understandable answer for my particular case. I'll note them here for reference. When does a dependency imply a ...
sbseltzer's user avatar
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1 answer
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Will my app be copylefted if it uses the webservice of a GPL server?

I'm planning to code a mobile app that uses an opensource server liscenced in GPL. So my app will make webservices call to that server. Will I be obliged to publish the code of my mobile application?
rsabir's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
873 views

I am using a MIT licensed module in a closed source project. What are my obligations?

I am using diverse module under the MIT license in my project. The project consist of a webserver, which will be closed source, commercial, and will not be distributed. As I understand the MIT ...
DrakaSAN's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
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Do unlicensed commits to a project acquire an open source license?

I have recently created a small project and pushed it to GitHub. I now plan on applying an open-source license. Once I choose a license and commit it to the project, are the older versions subjected ...
Caleb Reister's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
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Can I legally use code I found on a forum?

I want to write an R package and release on CRAN. But I have concerns about legal issues: licensing and authorship/ownership. Code of some functions in the package will be derived from or based on ...
GegznaV's user avatar
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1 answer
540 views

Do licenses actually apply to the source code or product itself?

I'm new to licensing and want to clarify something. Do licenses (such as Apache, MIT, GNU General Public etc.) apply to the source code or the (compiled) program? I thought it applied to the source ...
inertiablobby's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
194 views

Can I use Free Software as basis for a web-service without distributing the source?

I want to provide a service, intended to make me money, based upon free software. It consists of a free plugin (client) and a web-service. The client is published as Open Source, and it is deployed ...
Free Radical's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
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GPL compatible alternative to LPPL?

Problem Sometimes, I write latex templates (e.g. to account for department-specific guidelines for theses etc.), and wonder how to license them. Background The IEEEtran latex class is licensed under ...
nonthevisor's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
2k views

How to credit MIT NuGet dependencies in specific C# project?

the question has been asked many times, but as far as I can tell, answers always depend on the concrete situation. I intend to release an open-source project written in C# on GitLab soon, and I am ...
BoatWithoutName's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
869 views

Could the anti-tivoization provisions of the GPLv3 be circumvented by providing software separately?

In the FAQ section of the GPLv3, the Free Software Foundation presents the following entry: Question: Suppose that two companies try to circumvent the requirement to provide Installation Information ...
Tenders McChiken's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
417 views

Can I release an Excel Workbook with VBA code under the GPL v3?

This is my first foray into the open source world. I've got a Microsoft Excel workbook that I have some custom VBA modules in that I want to distribute under the GPL v3. I can't find much discussion ...
SandPiper's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
1k views

Forking an AGPL v3 project that went closed source?

A project (desktop app) that I've been using for a while has decided to go closed source. I fully respect the decision, but also have no interest in the direction where this new development is headed. ...
Ascalon's user avatar
  • 63
6 votes
1 answer
512 views

Does the GNU Affero GPL help to protect against closed source if the application is run on a remote server?

Note that there is this related question of which this question is by no means a duplicate. It refers to a related but separate scenario. I'*m about to release an application and yet need to choose a ...
a_guest's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
2k views

Distributing a .NET Core project under GPL

Although the source code of the most .NET Core components is licensed under a MIT License, the binary files of the .NET Core runtime and other supporting libraries on NuGet are released under a more ...
DDoSolitary's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
103 views

Open sourcing code derived from a book

I decided to write a compiler as a learning experiment. I first started by following some random tutorials here and there and built something that I called by naive implementation. (Since there's a ...
Samuel Yvon's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

How to apply the MIT License to a program including its embedded resource data?

I would like to apply the MIT License to all artifacts of an open source software project, i.e. its full source code, but also its resource data such as graphics or localized string lists that are ...
O. R. Mapper's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
117 views

Am I infringing copyright if I use an improperly licensed project?

While answering this question, it was pointed out to me in the comments that software that is improperly licensed (in that case, by violating another license) causes its own license to be cancelled ...
Tim Malone's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
2k views

Referencing nuget packages that are licensed under the Apache 2.0 license?

I created my first open-source project a few weeks ago. I have never done anything like that and have no idea, how to license and how to use licensed stuff. I researched a bit and found that it would ...
Jannik's user avatar
  • 161
6 votes
1 answer
61 views

Can you open source part of a database and keep another part closed?

Suppose I had a table in a database. This table contains user profile information. Each profile has: Name, birthdate, username, mini-bio, gender. My question: Suppose I wanted to make the "mini bio"...
Trevor Clarke's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
1k views

Can I use OpenCV for commercial sales?

so I've made an app using a popular library called OpenCV (https://opencv.org/license/) Its built on android and with the version I'm using it states that the licensing is: OpenCV 4.5.0 and higher ...
testuser111's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
307 views

Can XenServer really be treated as open source software?

I was wondering whether or not XenServer is truly open source. The project has seen quite some back and forth in its history. It was first released in 2006 as a proprietary extension of the Xen ...
Wanderer's user avatar
  • 161
6 votes
1 answer
233 views

Can an interpreted program be under any license without restricted by its GPL'ed run-time environment?

If I write a run-time environment based on some GPL'ed libraries and separately write an program interpreter which is passively used by the run-time environment, can a program (which is intended to be ...
user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
258 views

Is there a simple web licence for a backlink?

I'm a BSD developer, and I prefer to have a clear ISC licence at the top of every file that is fully self-sufficient in regards to the exact terms that I'm imposing on my work. Is there a variation ...
cnst's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
175 views

What is the difference between a ported and non-ported licenses?

What I know: From what I have read ported licenses are for specific locations while non-ported licenses have been customized to work in as many places as possible. Question: Even though I license ...
Trevor Clarke's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
503 views

Using public domain code in an LGPL program

I want to release a program that uses some public domain code (or a permissive license) from netlib.org under the LGPL license. Since the licenses (or lack of it) are compatible, there should be no ...
Jellby's user avatar
  • 271
6 votes
2 answers
180 views

Open Source libraries inside IC firmware and attribution obligation

I wonder whether Open Source libraries used within firmware burnt (in flash or ROM) in an IC that is sold to customers building products with it requires the final manufacturer to give credits (...
introiboad's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
188 views

What might be the licence for OpenAI model generated code snippets?

I saw an interesting video on computer-generated code snippets. The model has been trained on thousands of open source GitHub repositories. In the video, an AI model produced some small code ...
oleksii's user avatar
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6 votes
0 answers
491 views

Recursive license implications for third party FOSS components? [duplicate]

I'll use Qt as an exmaple: If I use Qt for a commercial software, I have to consider the Qt licensing, but at the same time Qt states many own third party components with different FOSS licenses. e.g. ...
radix's user avatar
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6 votes
3 answers
746 views

How to deal with copy-left in source-code history prior open-sourcing?

Given the following situation: A software project is released as open-source under a non-invasive license (e.g., BSD 2/3 clause, Apache 2, ...). During the process, the entire Git repository is made ...
H L's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
436 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 ...
Jellby's user avatar
  • 271
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) ...
FxMySz's user avatar
  • 61
5 votes
2 answers
185 views

Can I Open Source a software for a particular operating system?

I am writing some software for a particular operating system, OS1. Imagine this is the most awesome software ever! I want the users of OS1 to use the software as open source and restrict all others ...
Babbzzz's user avatar
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5 votes
5 answers
5k views

If a project is forked and its license is changed, which license should be followed?

We have seen a lot of open source project on GitHub. But what would happen if someone fork a project and modify & improve from it? For example, if an original open source project creator states ...
user1995781's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
230 views

Is it legal for a corporation to "lock in" & restrict usage and redistribution of Open Source software that it has released to it's own services?

In source code for a project released by Amazon.com Inc., awslabs/amazon-redshift-utils, an "Open Source"-like license is found with questionable stipulations, particularly section 3.3: 3.3 Use ...
TrinitronX's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
576 views

Have open source licenses been shut down in court?

There was a lawsuit between Mattell regarding CPHack. As I remember, Mattell bought a company who made a product under the GPL, rescinded the license and sued all those who redistributed original or ...
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