Questions tagged [software]
For questions about software in an open-source context; its uses and limitations.
27
votes
3answers
7k views
Is it legal to have the “// (c) 2019 John Smith” header in all files when there are hundreds of contributors?
Companies use headers like
// Copyright 2011 The Go Authors.
But countless projects with a single maintainer have
// Copyright 2011 John Smith
even though they have hundreds of contributors, all ...
1
vote
1answer
30 views
Can I use a company's name in my open-source project?
I'm developing a small open-source plugin for a fairly well known CMS, which as far as I can tell has a trademark on the product and company name. It's starting to get a bit of traction, so I'm in the ...
4
votes
1answer
56 views
What does it mean to say two licenses are compatible?
If license A is compatible with license B, does it mean that one can combine code from those two and should be able to release combination under license B?
or
Is it just symmetric like 'A is ...
2
votes
1answer
35 views
What is the license of code found in ObservableHQ?
What is the license of code found in ObservableHQ, for example this one?
I really tried reading The Observable Terms of Service but I couldn't get a conclusive answer by myself.
The following ...
1
vote
0answers
48 views
How do you manage provenance metadata and licence conditions for the data and software packages you use in your research?
Background: I asked this question to a statistical research audience on CrossValidated but was suggested that here might be more appropriate, so re-posting; keen for any tips!
In spatial analysis (...
2
votes
1answer
42 views
PHP mysqli and pdo drivers licensing
I use PHP language in my application and use these two drivers to connect to MySQL - mysqli and pdo. I know that PHP is licensed under PHP License v3.01, so I can freely use it, but at the same time, ...
1
vote
1answer
92 views
Does Licensing have to be mentioned for MIT/BSD-3 Plugins/Libraries for my Commercial Website?
If I create a commercial website that uses MIT/BSD-3 libraries and plugins, do I have to specifically mention the licences of each plugin/library? If so where do I have to add the same? Are the ...
0
votes
1answer
28 views
What are the libraries Blender is based on for mesh visualization and editing? [closed]
I'd like to make a software on Python with a GUI for 3D visual editing of meshes. That's why I ask the question. I suppose at least one mesh editing library is used. And at least one 3d visualization ...
2
votes
1answer
720 views
Can i use a GPLv2 module in my commercial application?
I am developing a commercial wordpress plugin. There is a form module that i have to develop however, i found one already built under GPL2 here
https://github.com/weDevsOfficial/weforms
All other ...
8
votes
1answer
1k views
License to use for smaller GitHub repos
I frequently create programs to process my local files in some fashion. About half of them are Bash shell scripts under 100 lines, others may be longer, include multiple files, or even be in other ...
-1
votes
1answer
46 views
A worldwide software todo list [closed]
When someone wants to develop a project but has no idea of what to do, where does he/she go to look for ideas? I guess i.e. github will be part of an answer.
But is there any platform out there with ...
1
vote
1answer
68 views
Getting a company to start discussing open source
I work in a large company which makes use of a lot of open source software and employees a fair number of software developers but does not consider itself to be a software development firm. I believe ...
2
votes
1answer
89 views
False Claims and Open Source
I discovered a chrome extension Adblock ultimate, it claims to be open source on the aforementioned webpage. I see that the app was updated about a year ago. Also, a GitHub page is also mentioned. ...
4
votes
4answers
144 views
What are the good reasons for my company to offer open source code?
I've been thinking for some time now for my company to share code publicly that we use in our projects. Code that is not related to any particular business case, but is useful and often copied from a ...
1
vote
1answer
118 views
What does Google have in return from developing Angular?
The other day I was thinking about Angular when the question arised:
What does Google have in return from developing Angular? The same principle applies of course not only for Google, but jQuery, ...
-2
votes
1answer
57 views
if I include source code with my commercial software, how much will that hurt the height of its sales?
i have an unreleased product i believe to be of great commercial value due to its algorithms. in the future, i intend to do four things in this order:
release the source of the software to customers ...
4
votes
1answer
167 views
Moving project from AGPL to Apache v2 / MIT license
The question in a nutshell
Hi! Together with a team of brilliant engineers we've been building a software project (http://luna-lang.org) for the last two years and now we want to release everything ...
3
votes
2answers
368 views
Can I hide a few lines of code because of security reasons?
I am working on a little project, and I consider making it open source (GPLv3). But there is one little problem:
There are a few lines of code I don't want to show off to the public because of a ...
-1
votes
1answer
40 views
What do I have to consider if I'm publishing software, where parts of it are written with another software under BSD license?
I'm going to publish a software, which tests are written with googletest framework. I've read the googletest license, but I'm not going to publish the source code or any modifications of it, or ...
-3
votes
2answers
168 views
How to prevent users to jump to “premium” plan in a web-app
I want to know how can I prevent users to download the code from Git Hub for example, search in the code for a premium variable or something similar and change it to true, rebuild the project and boom,...
8
votes
1answer
158 views
Licensing code on GitHub in a valid way
I'm currently developing something on GitHub. I would like to keep it open source; however I want to make sure in no way am I liable for any issues, and that my code cannot simply be copied and ...
-1
votes
1answer
133 views
License of Ubuntu MATE for commercial use
I would like to know what to be careful about using Ubuntu for commercial use.
I use Ubuntu MATE (Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS), some packages, and applications I created. I only use my applicaton on my own ...
-2
votes
1answer
50 views
Is this commercial use when using OSS library only in develop environment?
I don't know the definition of "commercial use" very much.
Is this commercial use when using OSS library only in develop environment?
I don't use the OSS library in production environment.
2
votes
1answer
31 views
Including a limited published Java interface in an opensource project?
My context: I live in the Netherlands and I have written Apache 2 licensed software that is used globally.
I have created a UDF (User Defined Function) for a piece of closed source software (https://...
4
votes
1answer
584 views
Open Source projects with encryption keys
I currently have a project which I'm planning in the not too distant future to open source on GitHub.
The question I have is regarding how open source projects are released if they have encryption ...
1
vote
0answers
19 views
Proprietary software pre-installed on the PocketC.H.I.P.?
After reading about the PocketC.H.I.P., I assumed that it comes with FLOSS only, because:
Their page advertises:
Open Source Hardware and Software mean you can do almost anything!
Their FAQ says:
...
6
votes
1answer
103 views
How can you guarantee someone that your open sourced code is what's being used in production?
Let's say you have an app that prides itself on open source technologies and the full codebase of your app being open source is what attracts users.
How can you guarantee your users that your open ...
2
votes
1answer
109 views
Most fitting software license for customized client work?
I am struggling with this question about a GitHub project of mine (MIT license). A client wanted me to customize it in a certain way and sell him the customizations (the customizations do not work ...
8
votes
3answers
147 views
Can a quine be distributed as binary only and be open source?
If the author of a program that outputs its own source code (quine) makes it open source, can others just distribute it as binaries?
Does it matter which popular open source license he used, say GPL ...
12
votes
5answers
246 views
Software licensing - Pre 1970's
From reference, page 4, The official ubuntu book, Eighth edition,
As computer’s became cheaper and more numerous in the late 1970’s, producer’s of software began to see value in the software itself....
3
votes
1answer
506 views
Software: If I bundle built (compiled) GPL 2 licensed software with commercial software package how does it affect my software license?
If I bundle a piece of compiled software (in this case, FFMPEG) which is licensed under GPL 2, with my own commercial software (which is not licensed under any form of open source license), does it ...
9
votes
2answers
442 views
How do Open Source projects manage continuous delivery credentials?
If one has an open source project that is deployed somewhere in the cloud via a continuous delivery pipeline, how can the programmatic credentials needed for the CI/CD to deploy the application ...
2
votes
1answer
598 views
Best open source license to preserve author credit?
We have a few library plugins that we want to open source on GitHub, but we want to preserve the author credit for us when our libraries are used by others.
I see a lot of different open source ...
4
votes
2answers
179 views
An open file format initially created to tie users to a closed program. Would using it over other open formats help the open source community more?
Take the DOCX vs. ODT format for example. They are both open source and assumably have no clear advantage over each other, but DOCX was created to compete with ODT, which had been existed many years ...
1
vote
1answer
121 views
We worked with BSD-license software and modified it and now want to allow others to help us
We use a software (a forum) written in PHP run on a single webserver. We modified the original software itself and applied software around it, e.g. using parts of the origin code in our own code. The ...
3
votes
1answer
87 views
Apache 2.0 Licence
When a product includes a firmware written by my company, and this firmware makes use of an open source product, licenced under Apache 2.0 license, and this product is finally to be sold on a broad ...
4
votes
1answer
115 views
Is installing an old free version legal, if the new version is not free anymore?
Is it legal to install an old version of a software that was free but not anymore?
Version 1 was free, I use it for a year. Version 2 is not free anymore. Can I install (into a new environment) the ...
4
votes
2answers
599 views
Distribute virtual machine image with gpl code
I have developed a C++ tool and I am the full copyright owner of the code. However the tool is dynamically linked to a gpl library. The whole source code of the tool is hosted on a virtual machine. In ...
44
votes
5answers
18k views
Is Microsoft VS code really open source?
I have been using MS VS Code since a while now and I am I really loving it.
Although the other day I was having a discussion regarding editors with my mentor where he pointed to me this.
It's ...
5
votes
1answer
76 views
Open sourcing software that I do not own IP to
I have written some software based on publicly available research papers that other people have written. I know that the authors of the research papers have filed for patent for their work. I do not ...
3
votes
1answer
265 views
Using AGPL v3 software in an enterprise deployment without sharing the changes
An enterprise utilizes the source code of a network software product licensed under the AGPL v3. It modifies the source code but does not share the changes with the original developer and copyright ...
5
votes
3answers
118 views
Would this scenario be considered “propagation without conveying” according to the GPLv3 terminology?
I have a fancy software "foo" that may be considered the derivative work of a GPLv3 library. "foo" is GPLv3 itself.
Example 1: I install the foo binary on my company's laptop, go to a customer's ...
8
votes
2answers
1k views
Is it possible to include a shorter form of a license if the license would be longer than the content licensed?
For example, Gists on GitHub don't have a field to track the license that they are available under. You can simply choose to create a public Gist or a secret (private) Gist.
Many of the open source ...
16
votes
4answers
813 views
Forking repos to “back up” in case they are removed?
I am wondering if forking a repo of software I use in case the owner ever decides to remove it is a silly thing to do or whether it actually makes sense.
It seems like the repo could just disappear ...
19
votes
2answers
8k views
MIT license and “All rights reserved.”?
I recently saw something like this:
Copyright (c) Some Corporation
All rights reserved.
MIT License
...
And then the MIT license follows. Now, from what I know the MIT license is one of the most ...
9
votes
1answer
439 views
How do I document licenses of code snippets on a web page with a CC BY 4.0 license?
I have a non-trivial amount of text, image, audio, and video content that I'm licensing as Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). I chose this license because it allows people to ...
15
votes
1answer
1k views
How to license software that implements a well-documented algorithm, but which does not borrow source from the official library?
I have implemented an RSYNC library based on the
technical report by Andrew Tridgell and Paul Mackerras. The library implementation does not borrow code from the official RSYNC library and does not ...
2
votes
3answers
258 views
Can you open source a virus/exploit?
Is it fine to open source a virus, exploit or any other potential dangerous software (if used in the wrong way)?
If so, are there any limitations/circumstances when you can't? Does it depends on the ...
19
votes
8answers
2k views
How to give evidence that an open-source project is reputable?
Other than having someone manually reading all of the code, how can you demonstrate an open-source project's reputability? i.e. it is not a virus/malware/whatever.
I'm not concerned with the ...
8
votes
3answers
811 views
How can I detect if someone is breaking my license terms?
If this question is about what we are supposed to do if someone is breaking the terms of a software license, I would like to know how I can know if some is doing so.
Suppose that I'm writing a ...
