25
votes
Accepted
Ramifications of the proposed new SE licensing model
I posted an answer to the announcement post that pretty much sums up why part of this - the exception - is a bad idea:
You're essentially creating a crayon license.
If you modify the terms of ...
- 9,028
22
votes
Accepted
Does GPLv3 require attribution?
TL;DR
I believe that GNU GPLv3 does not require attribution, [...] Am I correct in my understanding of GPLv3?
No, the GPL-3.0 always requires attribution composed at the minimum of a copyright ...
- 14.1k
20
votes
Can Wikipedia content be used on my website if I attribute it on my terms and conditions page?
You can use all the text, and most of the images, under some conditions, and those conditions include proper attribution.
Wikipedias text is under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 ...
- 9,086
19
votes
Accepted
Borrowing ideas rather than code from open source projects
If you have not copied the code directly, this sort of thing is usually OK, and exempt from copyright laws. Specifically, mathematical formulae, ideas, inventions, recipes and facts cannot be ...
- 592
17
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to stop the removal/modification of my project's logo?
If you are the copyright holder, you are allowed to license however you wish. An example of a license you can use is the Common Public Attribution License, which contains this clause (paraphrased):
...
- 8,703
17
votes
Accepted
Does the three-clause BSD license hinder academic citations?
No, the third clause of the BSD license does not prevent an academic citation of your work. What it prevents is statements along the lines of
Because we have made use of tool X by @wimi, they ...
- 25.4k
15
votes
Accepted
Which type of license doesn't require attribution in GitHub projects?
Nearly all Open Source licenses require attributions. Counter-examples include:
0BSD, a license that imposes no conditions. Example: Toybox, a minimal Linux userland.
CC0, though it is technically ...
- 37.4k
13
votes
Accepted
What is considered proper attribution for a deleted Stack Exchange post?
In 4(c) of CC BY-SA 3.0 it is defined how attribution has to be provided. For the work’s URL, it says:
[…] (iii) to the extent reasonably practicable, the URI, if any, that Licensor specifies to be ...
- 5,380
12
votes
Accepted
Can I create a derivative of an old book?
Copyright for old works expire at some point. In most countries that happens 70 years after authors death. Can I take a book with expired copyright (say Dickens Oliver Twist), [...] and release the ...
- 8,895
12
votes
Accepted
Open Source License But Maintain Prominent Attribution
The BSD license(s) and the MIT X11 license are some of the simplest and most permissive Open Source / Free Software licenses. With the exception of the original (and officially obsolete) 4-clause BSD ...
- 870
12
votes
Accepted
What are the attribution requirements of the AGPL license?
This is a detailed analysis, but note that I am not a lawyer, cannot give you reliable advice, and am only looking at the terms of the AGPL, not at relevant law in your jurisdiction.
Companies that ...
- 37.4k
10
votes
How should I re-license the scaffold code for my new application? (it is licensed under MIT)
The MIT license is a very permissive license, and allows re-licensing. The license doesn't require you at all to to keep the attribution line in any of the files, but it's kind of a dick move to ...
- 9,086
10
votes
What is the most concise unambiguous way to represent dual licensing of a work?
You're correct in your last paragraph at least: the || symbol will mean nothing to people who have no programming knowledge.
If you know that the only people visiting your project will be programmers,...
- 9,028
10
votes
Accepted
Can I do a mass attribution if I got all the data from one location but different users?
Flaticon requires you to attribute each author:
In order to use an icon you must attribute it to it's [sic] author, so we will be able to continue creating new graphic resources every day.
...
- 33.5k
10
votes
Merging parts of another, parallel, fork [MIT]
You are thinking very much about Git, and not at all about the existing MIT license.
You can just copy Jack's code.
You do have explicit permission – the MIT license under which you received Jack's ...
- 37.4k
10
votes
Is there a way to only permit open-source mods for my video game to stop people from stealing code or at least enforce proper attribution?
Provide a legitimate route for mods to run on the game, and have it pull from public git repos
Assuming your game uses unity, or similar, there is little you can do to stop people modding it. There's ...
- 217
10
votes
Which type of license doesn't require attribution in GitHub projects?
The WTFPL probably deserves a mention. Here's the entire text of the license:
DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 2, December 2004
Copyright (C) 2004 ...
- 500
9
votes
Accepted
Can I give someone specific permission?
Yes you can and no you don't have to.
You're the owner. Since you own all the rights, you can of course allow them to use without attribution.
You shouldn't have to write anything. If someone ...
- 9,028
9
votes
Is Stack Exchange's CC-BY-SA v3.0 content compatible with the GPL?
Warning: It seems that this isn’t possible, because the provision (that only "the last license applied" has to be followed) was introduced with CC BY-SA 4.0, so CC BY-SA 3.0 doesn’t allow it. Please ...
- 5,380
9
votes
How should I assert copyright when I'm forking an MIT project?
Listing copyright for each individual may imply that these holders hold copyright over all of the code, whereas really they should only hold copyright over the portions they have created. I would ...
- 328
9
votes
Accepted
Can I take a few classes out of a library and use it in my project or should I always use the entire library?
Open source allows you to create derivative works. That means you can create a derivative work which reduces the functionality to those parts you consider essential.
But remember that you need to ...
- 11.5k
9
votes
License that prohibits attribution on derivatives?
While not exactly a spot-on match, Creative Commons licenses effectively give this option. In CC-BY 4.0, for example, section 3(a)(3) states that attribution must be removed upon request:
If ...
- 33.5k
8
votes
Do I have to retain the copyright notice exactly where it’s specified?
No
Let's go through section 3(a) of the license bit by bit.
If You Share the Licensed Material (including in modified form), You must:
A. retain the following if it is supplied by the ...
- 7,658
8
votes
How to attribute Creative Commons images in a quiz game (mobile app)?
This is a better question than I first thought because, whilst there's lots of guides and FAQs on this subject, they are disorganised, duplicating, and don't cover mobile apps specifically. I'll try ...
- 8,703
8
votes
Borrowing ideas rather than code from open source projects
This is a jagged seam between the concepts that underpin copyright law, versus the reality of information.
Copyright law cares very much about the provenance of the work: what prior works does this ...
- 472
8
votes
Accepted
Merge, rebrand, relicense projects
Can I license the resulting library under apache 2.0 or do I have to keep it MIT?
The MIT license is a permissive license which allows relicensing under other license terms as long as the original ...
- 11.5k
8
votes
Accepted
How should I assert copyright when I'm forking an MIT project?
Yes, that's exactly how you should do it.
If, in the future, you happen to have written out any code by the original contributor, then you could (if you wish), remove their name - but you'd have to ...
- 2,120
8
votes
Accepted
When to list contributors
I think it matters, and everyone should be listed, and I think the reasons are almost entirely moral.
Limiting the list to the core team fails to acknowledge major contributors. Leaving contributors ...
- 436
8
votes
Accepted
Should I cite anything in my app for public domain/license?
There is a tremendous difference between public domain and the broad (nebulous) category of what you call "public licenses". Public domain means there is no copyright on the work, and you may deal ...
- 33.5k
8
votes
Should you give attributions to the libraries your library uses?
But what about the libraries that x-library uses? Is it my job to give attribution to it or is it x-library's job?
If you redistribute libraries with you app --whether or not they are your direct, ...
- 14.1k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible