Questions tagged [software]
For questions about software in an open-source context; its uses and limitations.
94
questions
1
vote
1answer
54 views
Redistribution of BSD source code
If I can access a source code with a BSD license, who, if anybody, do I need to ask permission to use/modify/commercialize/redistribute the code (under BSD license conditions)?
The BSD license allows ...
2
votes
1answer
40 views
Do you need to document your changes/modifications to a program under GPLv3?
I heard that you must document all your changes and modifications to a software under the GPLv3. Is this true? If I'm not distributing this software, do I have to document my changes/modifications. ...
-4
votes
1answer
41 views
Where is the VLC changelog? [closed]
There was finally (after like a year) a new minor version of VLC released. Neither the program itself, nor the website, says one single word about what changes have been made. I've spent like an hour ...
0
votes
0answers
15 views
Licenses similar to CC BY-NC-SA and CC BY-NC-ND, but for software [duplicate]
The creative commons licenses state explicitly that they should not be used for software.
What alternatives exists for CC BY-NC-SA and CC BY-NC-ND suitable for software that is published on the ...
0
votes
0answers
24 views
Software license for non-commerical reproducible research [duplicate]
I am a researcher at a university with a guest status. I am not employed though and the work I do is my own. The software I develop belongs to me. For reproducible research I want to publish some of ...
1
vote
2answers
421 views
Can Ubuntu be used to make money? [duplicate]
I plan to sell course(s) on Udemy by using Ubuntu. As you predict, there will be everything what the Ubuntu has (such as screens, icons, logos, symbols, tools, softwares etc. and their use) in the ...
0
votes
0answers
40 views
How does a cooking recipe and a software recipe (source code) differ from other kinds of data?
I understand that it is commonly believed that cooking recipes and "software recipes" (source codes) differ from other kinds of potentially-computer-memorized-data (such as a romantic song ...
4
votes
2answers
112 views
The specifics of licensing public domain code within project under GNU GPLv3+
I'm developing a project which I'm about to release under the GNU GPL 3+ license. It does, however, contain a number of public domain subroutines.
Question: How do I go about placing a GPL license ...
1
vote
0answers
23 views
Licensing of software in commercial Youtube videos
I'm thinking of recording a couple of coding tutorials on Youtube. I wonder if I can use free (e.g. codepen) and purchased software (e.g. Visual Studio) in those videos without risking to run into ...
2
votes
1answer
244 views
Can I use dynamically linked MinGW runtime libraries with a BSD dll library for commercial purposes?
I had earlier asked Can I use BSD license-based dll statically linked to MinGW under the run-time licence exception?.
Can I use dynamically linked MinGW runtime libraries (f.e. libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll, ...
3
votes
1answer
556 views
Can I use BSD license-based dll statically linked to MinGW under the run-time licence exception?
This BSD DLL depends on 3 MinGW run-time libraries (libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll, libgfortran-3.dll and libquadmath-0.dll). What if I'll compile them statically into BSD dll to eliminate dependences on MinGW ...
2
votes
1answer
37 views
Confused by html2canvas library's license
I was planning to use html2canvas
The license is really confusing to me, as it's never stated which parts are for Microsoft, which are not and if the whole code is licensed under MIT, as it also ...
4
votes
1answer
138 views
How can I use programming documentation without infringing copyright?
I have a really hard time understanding how can I use copyrighted programming documentation, tutorials, articles, blogs, etc. presented as text or video, without infringing copyright?
I will explain ...
2
votes
0answers
38 views
Licencing a software while working in an enterprise
I work for one of the 4 big consulting companies.
I developed a software on my free time. It gained lot of attention, I was asked to register it as company asset. I guess there are plans to use/sell ...
2
votes
1answer
42 views
Use of GPL licensed code in commercial software
I have created an library (A) that uses several other GPL v2 or v3 licensed libraries (B,C,D) which, I am not the author of. I am only the author of A.
Can I license library A under a GPL or a dual ...
5
votes
2answers
281 views
Copyright holder in R packages
I am developing an R package and distribute it under the GPL-2 license by submitting it to CRAN. According to CRAN's Writing R extensions, i am the author and maintainer of the source code.
The R ...
0
votes
1answer
71 views
Copyright issue of the interface of Windows Notepad [closed]
I'm developing Windows application. It is crypto-functioning notepad.
And its design(UI interface) is almost(approx 90%?) same with Microsoft Windows Notepad.
Differences are only some buttons and ...
1
vote
1answer
58 views
Can I use CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 content in a webview while keeping the app commercial?
I am developing an app that uses material (the material I want to show is a website) which is licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 but I want to place ads in my application. The application has another ...
2
votes
1answer
67 views
How to effectively browse mailing lists
There are many open source projects whose development is officially discussed through mailing lists (the obvious example being the Linux kernel).
Being young and spoiled by nice clean website design,...
3
votes
1answer
77 views
Rebranding existing library under MIT
I bit of background: When I was working in my previous company I came up with an idea to extract all some generic functionality from the different projects and create open source library (MIT) from ...
3
votes
1answer
256 views
Under what license may I take and use screenshots of LibreOffice?
Recently, I have been considering making some screenshots of LibreOffice's applications and putting them on my blog (just as graphical examples for the text). But then, I started to think about what ...
10
votes
3answers
17k views
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 ...
7
votes
2answers
229 views
Creative Commons ShareAlike, weak or strong copyleft?
I am wondering whether Creative Commons ShareAlike is a weak or strong copyleft license. That is, does it allow linking with code with under a different license?
0
votes
0answers
125 views
Placement of Licensing in Apple Sample Code - Swift
I was going through a tutorial on Apple/Swift and they show a sample project which they offer users to download. On the Swift file, they show:
/* See LICENSE folder for this sample's licensing ...
1
vote
1answer
175 views
Can I use libgit2 in commercial application?
I want to embed libgit2 in my commercial application (here is license https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2/blob/master/COPYING) . I want to create static libgit2 library, and link it with my commercial ...
28
votes
4answers
8k 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 ...
2
votes
1answer
149 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
108 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 ...
3
votes
1answer
354 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 excerpt ...
1
vote
0answers
79 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
170 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
150 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
92 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 ...
3
votes
1answer
9k 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 ...
10
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
71 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
77 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 ...
3
votes
2answers
161 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. ...
5
votes
4answers
207 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
191 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
73 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 ...
5
votes
1answer
348 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
881 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
51 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
188 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
363 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
213 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
60 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
35 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
823 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 ...
