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Questions tagged [multi-licensing]

Works can be released under two (or more) licenses, which may or may not be compatible, giving recipients the choice of which terms they will abide by

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2 votes
1 answer
39 views

Can I use a header (include) file licensed as GPLv2 only in GPLv3 project?

To be brief, I am working on a big C project, which I want to license under GPLv3. I need some compiler-specific attribute macros, and I found include/linux/compiler_attributes.h from Linux kernel ...
8 votes
3 answers
3k views

Combining GPL with non-commercial license

I've been a hobbyist programmer for a long time, and only recently have I been writing code I've thought others might benefit from. Here's my conundrum: I'm a big supporter of the GPL, and I ...
2 votes
1 answer
100 views

AGPL/Commercial software

I'm a developer and I need to download and use a nuget package for an internal app in our company. The license for this nuget package says: "dual licensed as AGPL/Commercial software". So ...
4 votes
1 answer
159 views

What is the point of dual licensing a library under BSD-3-Clause and GPL?

While reviewing our libraries I stumbled over the zstd implementation (https://github.com/facebook/zstd/blob/dev/README.md). It (and some of its derivatives) is dual licenses under a BSD-3-Clause and ...
2 votes
2 answers
191 views

Can I license code that links to GPL code under a more permissive license?

I'm working on a project that I want to release under the MIT license. However, it includes a GPL'ed library. I understand this means I must release my work under GPL. Am I able to release the whole ...
5 votes
2 answers
257 views

Different OSS license for LaTeX project source and code listings

I am currently writing a technical document with various code listings and diagrams. I would like to release the actual text under the GNU-FDL license, while keeping the code listings under GNU-GPL V3....
4 votes
2 answers
104 views

How to license a literate program?

A literate program is a set of of source files each containing a mix of documentation (e.g. as Latex 'code') and code (e.g. as C++ code -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literate_programming). From ...
1 vote
1 answer
395 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 ...
7 votes
2 answers
2k views

Can a company offering a dual-license AGPL/paid commercial product require commercial users to purchase a commercial license?

When I was working through a problem I was having with MinIO, I noticed that in a bug report on Github, one of the project owners made this comment to a bug reporter: Also remember if you are using ...
3 votes
1 answer
103 views

Do authors retain full rights to use code they contributed to an open-source project?

Am I correct in thinking that, if I am the original and sole author (and the code was not produced as a work for hire) of code contributed to an open-source project with a given license, I retain the ...
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

Dynamically Linking a Proprietary Module to a GPL-Covered Library (C/C++)

Context Suppose I have two projects called: Foo Bar Goal: The Foo compiles to some sort of dynamic linking library such as a windows .dll and links to project Bar dynamically. And some of the ...
1 vote
0 answers
51 views

can I use CC BY-SA 3.0 media (pictures) in a software partly licensed under a non-derivative license?

I am working on software that contains graphics I didn't make, that are licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Since the software contains other parts I didn't make, I want to put it under two different ...
10 votes
1 answer
1k views

Does reimplementing GPLv2 code in another language create a derivative work that also falls under the GPL?

I am now working with some ~2005 C CLI code, licensed as GPLv2-only. I hope to do the following things: Port the code to a more recent environment (e.g. port to Ubuntu 22.04) (I only do this to try ...
2 votes
1 answer
141 views

Using a library with triple-license from a private application

We are analyzing the possibility of using JRuby library for some maintenance tasks in a private closed-source application that we are selling to a customer. According to the license information on ...
2 votes
0 answers
68 views

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 ...
-1 votes
1 answer
66 views

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 ...
3 votes
1 answer
243 views

Can I create a GPL SaaS front-end application with lots of dependencies to Closed Source libraries

There is a GPLv2+ library that I want to use in my front-end SaaS web application The library is a JavaScript library There are lot's of valuable front-end code in my SaaS web application that I ...
2 votes
1 answer
434 views

Relicensing a library to GPL when an MIT-licensed program depends on it

I wrote a library and released it under the MIT license. Another developer and I started another project that depends on my library; it is also under the MIT license. I want to relicense my library ...
2 votes
1 answer
455 views

Usage and compatibility of AGPL in the context of permissive licensed dependencies

I figured it's time to add a license to a project I've been working on for some time. I'm interested in a copy-left license. The project is a web application that can be built and self-hosted on a &...
2 votes
1 answer
77 views

Use of CC0 licensed code which used CPOL licensed code

I want to use for the creation of an application that I plan to add to Google play (free to use) some code that is licensed under a CC0 license (https://github.com/tedbarnett/read-exif-in-unity). ...
1 vote
1 answer
82 views

Dual Licensing for Artistic Software

Let's say I'd like to develop an end-user application with which you can create some kind of artistic work (say presentations or drawings). As a fan of the open source idea, I'd like to open-source ...
3 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is it safe to use FreeType inside a proprietary closed-source software?

Many of libraries, that have LGPL or permissive licenses, depends on FreeType, that have multi-licensing (FTL/GPL). My question is: if FreeType can be used under any of these licenses, can someone ...
-1 votes
1 answer
231 views

Does multi-licensing disable "use/run for any purpose" right?

It is understood from the Open Source Initiative's definition of open source that the software under the licenses here and here can be used/run for any purpose. For example, it is understood that ...
2 votes
2 answers
1k views

Multi-Licensing with open source licenses

When a project on GitHub uses two OS licenses, Apache/EPL or Apache/AGPL, does one license govern over the other or do both govern equally and together? My main confusion is how the two licenses ...
11 votes
3 answers
3k views

What is the meaning of two licenses in a maven pom?

Maven allows several licenses in its license block e.g. <licenses> <license> <name>GPL-3.0</name> </license> <license> <name> Beerware</...
5 votes
1 answer
1k views

Is license compatibility a partial order?

When we say that some license X is (one-way) compatible with another license Y, I gather that we often intend for compatibility to be transitive; that is, given some other license W which is ...
-1 votes
1 answer
85 views

How does firefox use proprietory fonts?

Visit about:preferences on firefox and search fonts.Almost every font that is listed is proprietory.How does firefox use them though they are open source?
2 votes
1 answer
120 views

Granting exceptions to the GPL so that binary is compatible with 3rd party license

Suppose there exists a software library libfoo distributed under the terms of a hypothetical license we will here call The Foo License (TFL). The terms of TFL are identical to those of the 3-clause ...
3 votes
2 answers
338 views

Using one source code file from other project with different license type

I want to use one source code file from other open source project which is licensed under GPL3. That source code will be used to perform a single task in my project. My entire project is licensed ...
2 votes
1 answer
214 views

Can you use a less restrictive open source licence from the one your depedency has?

Without loss of generality, suppose you have an open source Java project with Gradle as the build system, and you want to add the MIT licence to it. Consider the cases: Case 1. From the build.gradle ...
6 votes
0 answers
227 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 ...
6 votes
2 answers
5k views

Clarification: Dual licensed under the MIT or GPL Version 2 licenses

I've been reading the differences between these two licenses for a few hours now and it is still quite not clear to me how this duality works. As far as I understood, the MIT license basically gives ...
2 votes
1 answer
544 views

Is there a specific header used to indicate that a file is exempt from the licensing of the rest of the project?

I am using the GPLv3 license for a tool that embeds files into source code. However as part of it's operation it copies a portion of it's own source into projects that use it (as a library to allow ...
3 votes
1 answer
120 views

Include copyright material used by permission in open source repository

I've got an open source web project on GitHub licensed under GPL 3.0. Now I'm going to be adding some material under copyright (verses from a translation of the Bible) that I've been given permission ...
3 votes
2 answers
3k views

Python package with different licenses per modules, some with GPL: is a global GPL license required?

I'm in a situation a bit similar to this one, but more precisely I developed a Python package with multiple modules. Some of them have dependencies under GPL, therefore "infecting" this specific ...
1 vote
1 answer
136 views

Can downstream dual licensing be inferred?

Suppose a developer receives software from XX with a license permitting unlimited modification and redistribution as well as full ownership of any original content. The only restriction being no ...
3 votes
1 answer
460 views

Suitable license for open-source game with proprietary content

I am developing a 2D sidescroller game for mobile platforms and am trying to figure out the best licensing option for this situation: My desire is to make the game's source code open-source, but the ...
0 votes
1 answer
950 views

Dual license open source software?

I'm building a piece of open source code that I want to use the AGPLv3 license, but at the same time, if a company pays a fee, I want to allow them to access the software using a much more permissive ...
92 votes
2 answers
21k views

Why is CC BY-SA discouraged for code?

Everybody knows that you shouldn't use a CC BY-SA license on your code. Even the Creative Commons folk recommend against it. What I don't know or understand is why. I can't seem to find any ...
3 votes
1 answer
166 views

Would a multi-license consisting of all possible non-exclusive licenses work?

Dual licensing is used to maximize compatibility. One requirement is that licenses must be non-exclusive, although they don't have to compatible and as licensee you are free to choose a subset of the ...
4 votes
2 answers
884 views

Can my thesis LaTeX source files contents be under GPL v3?

I want to release all the LaTeX source files (*.tex), when I publish my thesis. I do not want to just release the PDF. So everybody can build my thesis with a LaTeX compiler from its source code. Can ...
5 votes
1 answer
1k views

GPL with license exception for iOS?

I'd really like to use the GPL license for my cross-platform mobile app. I want to publish on the iOS AppStore, the terms of which indirectly prohibit the GPL from being used. What's the best way to ...
3 votes
1 answer
178 views

Meaning of "and" and "additionally" connectors with two Open Source licenses

[This question is an expansion of the question "Meaning of OFL and GPL" because of limits on the number of characters in comment-responses]. I am unsure of the meaning of the terms "and" and "...
3 votes
2 answers
1k views

Can I use a library that is dual licensed GPL + LGPL as if it was only LGPL?

PaGMO 2 includes both GPL and LGPL in their copyright notices: Copyright 2017-2018 PaGMO development team This file is part of the PaGMO library. The PaGMO library is free software; you can ...
4 votes
2 answers
276 views

What is the way to handle a project that is a mix of software and non-software items?

Our project is partly software, and partly 3d models and images. To me, the language of the MIT license, which specifically refers to software, doesn't really seem applicable to the parts that aren't ...
3 votes
2 answers
324 views

Adding a very minor part of GPL3 code to a BSD-licensed project

I am porting a library that somebody else released under BSD-3 license from Fortran to C++. In order to make it run easily under C++, I am using an interface that is only a very minor and almost ...
3 votes
1 answer
3k views

License header for CSS/JS resources

I'm creating a template for a company and fetching all vendor libs and selfmade code together to one minified style.css and script.js. My question to you is: Is this following license header legal? /...
5 votes
2 answers
836 views

Dual license or relicense when the new license is more permissive?

An organization is considering changing the license of an OSS repo on GitHub. For the purposes of this question, assume that organization has the legal rights to change the license. It is currently ...
2 votes
0 answers
91 views

Open Source Hardware software and patent license

I'm working on a hardware medical device which I'd like to open source without giving out my patent rights to potential competitors. I'd like to open source the firmware/software part. What's ...
3 votes
1 answer
376 views

Will distributing my program with virtual box make it GPL?

So I'm wondering if I distribute my application (as an .iso file) with virtualbox portable http://www.vbox.me/ which is licensed under GPLv2, will that make my program also under the GPLv2 license? Or ...