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Questions tagged [permissive]

For questions about permissive licenses, such as Apache or MIT. Note: this does not include public domain or CC0. Use [public-domain] instead.

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8 votes
4 answers
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How to ensure a BSD licensed open source project is not closed in the future?

Reading previous discussion I see that it is possible to release binaries under BSD license without releasing the code: Release a BSD-licensed but closed-source program? However, can a BSD licensed ...
Mathieu Westphal's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
89 views

Does adding license headers to files without existing headers count as my modification to an Apache 2.0-licensed project?

I recently used a starter template project for an API that is under the Apache 2.0 License, where the project doesn't have a NOTICE file and individual files in that project don't have their own ...
colston bod-oy's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
93 views

What is this shortened, BSD-3-Clause-like license?

For the first time in my life, I have ran across a license that looks like a popular license, but that I have not been able to recognize or find on Google. I ran into it looking at the license for ...
ArrayBolt3's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
88 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 - ...
Eli Minkoff's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
503 views

Is the GNU All-Permissive License suitable for source code?

Text of the GNU All-Permissive License (also known as the "FSF All Permissive License"): Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are permitted in any medium ...
Flux's user avatar
  • 743
6 votes
3 answers
728 views

GPL and Linking Exceptions

I'm trying to decide on a license for some code I'm going to be open-sourcing shortly, and having a hard time choosing among the major licenses (as less common licenses are things people are not as ...
user30520's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
210 views

I need clarifications on what rights I'm granting by the CC BY-SA 4.0

It was recently brought to my attention that by posting anything to Stackoverflow, you irrevocably grant Stackoverflow a CC BY-SA 4.0 license to your posted content. I thought CC BY-SA 4.0 was ...
NextNightFlyer's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
411 views

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 ...
Thomas Eding's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
55 views

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 ...
Takashi's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
34 views

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 ...
Takashi's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
154 views

Does the WTFPL 2 also allow the licensee to do something they don't want to do?

The terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification of the WTFPL 2 are quite terse and to the point: You just DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO. However, I'm unsure whether they are also ...
das-g's user avatar
  • 153
4 votes
1 answer
267 views

Copyleft licensed part inside permissive software

Assume somebody writes software and distributes it to customers. Since any dependency under a copyleft license (such as the GPL) would require putting the whole software under a copyleft license, ...
otessa's user avatar
  • 43
0 votes
1 answer
94 views

Is attribution necessary even if not distributed?

With permissive licenses requiring attributions (MIT, BSD, etc.), are attributions ONLY required if the OSS is distributed?
aak679's user avatar
  • 9
5 votes
3 answers
188 views

Can I use an unmerged pull request to an Apache 2.0 project in my proprietary fork?

There's a project under Apache 2.0 which has an abondoned pull request. I plan to use this code, fix it and merge into my proprietary fork of the main project. This fork is a part of a bigger ...
Logarithmus's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
656 views

What are the *restrictions* in permissive licenses like MIT or Apache 2.0?

If I (or a company where I work) use a source code part from an open source project licensed under a permissive license like MIT or Apache 2.0 it is clear I can modify, edit etc it. What is not clear ...
g.pickardou's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
117 views

Can a copy-left licensed software mutate to a permissive one? Can a permissive licence mutate to a copy-left one?

I am a bit lost with license compatibility and re-licensing. See this example: Author Alice is author and holds copyright of software under GPL3. This software supports plugins. Author Bob authors a ...
Xavi Montero's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
122 views

Why Opensource projects don't include notice and copyright information of dependent libraries having permissive license?

Many of the Opensource projects which use libraries which have a permissive license, doesn't include copyright and license information. For eg: Requests project (https://github.com/psf/requests) uses ...
Anshul Patel's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
913 views

When is a commercial company allowed to acquire an Open Source project?

For the last few months I spent significant time contributing to an open source project which is licensed with MIT license. I was aware that anyone is allowed to copy, use and change the project's ...
Amir Gonnen's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why to prefer permissive license over copyleft license?

In open source software/projects why do people release there codes with a permissive license instead of a copyleft license? I mean, the original author will not get back much (if anything at all) if ...
Zeeshan Shaikh's user avatar
21 votes
2 answers
7k views

Is there any reason to not use 0BSD?

I recently came across the Zero-Clause BSD License (also known as the Free Public License). A version of the BSD license that does not include any restrictions. I've looked for information regarding ...
OperatingChown's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
219 views

Does Stack Exchange disallow me to use posted contents in an Apache 2.0 licensed project?

Content posted on Stack Exchange sites like Stack Overflow or Electrical Engineering are CC-BY-SA 3.0 licensed. User contributions licensed under cc-by-sa 3.0 See the footer of any SE site: As ...
Paebbels's user avatar
  • 276
1 vote
1 answer
834 views

Can I use BSD / MIT licensed code in a public-domain equivalent project?

As far as I know, the BSD 3-clause and MIT licenses are functionally equivalent. Can I take BSD/MIT-licensed code and use it in a project which I then release under CC0, the Unlicense, or similar? (...
SilverWolf's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
92 views

Clarification for a permissive licensing of a derivative work by example

The situation is the following: I am working on a binding project (using a library/framework built on Swift and binding for Xamarin/C#) which includes some sample apps/programs adopted from Swift to ...
ilap's user avatar
  • 21
0 votes
1 answer
105 views

Usage of permissive BSD license

I want to start one e-commerce site , for which i chose the backbone framework which is under permissive BSD license , can i use it for commercial purpose. what are the things do i need to keep in ...
user3265739's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
378 views

Can the ability to fork override the copyright holder's desires?

Consider the following scenario Project A is originally licensed under a permissive license By the time it reaches version 6, it has built up a strong user base, many of those users producing closed ...
kdopen's user avatar
  • 6,997
5 votes
3 answers
202 views

Should I use a permissive license if I might charge for my product later?

Background Suppose I am working on a piece of open sourced software. Suppose I am unsure whether or not I want to sell it in future versions. My question: Would using a permissive license make it ...
Trevor Clarke's user avatar
32 votes
4 answers
18k views

What's the difference between permissive and copyleft licenses?

I've heard both terms thrown around, but I'm a bit unclear as to how the licenses differ. How is copyleft different to a permissive license? Is copyleft just the standard for open source licenses?
Raystafarian's user avatar
21 votes
4 answers
485 views

Very permissive license

I'm about to launch my current project as Open Source. People should feel free to do with the code whatever they want and luckily there are quite a few licensing options to choose from. So I'm ...
Mast's user avatar
  • 467