81
votes
Accepted
Someone open-sourced an un-open-source project
Person A has no right to distribute that software, and is committing a copyright violation. Since they hold no rights in the software, they cannot grant a license to others. Any license they purport ...
- 38.6k
51
votes
Accepted
Is requiring a license a violation of the GPL? Can I get around it?
You should be able to request the complete corresponding modified source code to the complete application from your vendor under the GPL without additional costs in excess of the media. If he refuses,...
- 526
30
votes
Accepted
Since some software is open source, can you add a feature you created and use it for your own personal use?
Yes
VSCode
Mureinik already pointed out that VSCode is licensed under the MIT license, which is a permissive license. To quote from it (emphasis mine):
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, ...
- 671
29
votes
Accepted
Is re-encoding an audio or video file permitted under CC-BY-ND?
CC BY-ND 4.0 says in section 2(a)(4):
Media and formats; technical modifications allowed. The Licensor authorizes You to exercise the Licensed Rights in all media and formats whether now known or ...
- 35.6k
26
votes
Is requiring a license a violation of the GPL? Can I get around it?
The GPL only affects the source code of the project, not the binaries that are distributed. The strong copyleft clause of the GPL affects the source code, and forces that any derivative works are also ...
- 6,409
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 ...
- 9,298
24
votes
Accepted
How to use MIT license in a project?
The MIT license is so simple, you should be able to find the answer to your questions by just reading it. It has only one requirement:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be ...
- 5,557
21
votes
Accepted
Quoting GPL licensed text in presentation slides
The Berne Convention on copyright specifies the Right to Quote as an exception to copyright.
Article 10 (1) It shall be permissible to make quotations from a work which has already been lawfully made ...
- 7,728
19
votes
Accepted
Does the CC-BY-SA License require that source code of derivative works be shared?
Yes, they can publish a PDF without publishing the modified LaTeX sources. No, this is not DRM.
CC-BY-SA is not an open-source license. It is intended for creative works such as photographs or ...
- 38.6k
19
votes
Accepted
Is the output of an open source program licensed the same?
In general, the license of the software used to create a file doesn't have any influence on the possible licenses you can distribute that file under.
For example, if you use Microsoft Word to write ...
19
votes
Since some software is open source, can you add a feature you created and use it for your own personal use?
The freedom to modify a piece of software is an essential open-source freedom covered by any open-source license, specifically the MIT License which VSCode is licensed under.
In other words - you most ...
- 5,002
17
votes
Why don't open source licenses give a more specific definition of "derivative works" to reduce ambiguity?
Because open source licenses are copyright licenses, and copyright license do not get to define their scope as they choose; or more precisely there is a "maximum size boundary" to which the ...
- 18.5k
14
votes
Is the code generated from a GPLv3 EBNF grammar a derivative work?
The code is a derived work of the grammar. (but not of ANTLR)
The Grammar file is a description of how to parse the language, written in EBNF.
The source code generated by ANTLR etc is a description ...
- 1,191
14
votes
Is it allowed to dynamically link a GPL licensed library for commercial use?
The jury is still out on this one.
The traditional interpretation, and the one intended by the Free Software Foundation(FSF, publishers of the GPL), is that no, you can't do this. This position seems ...
- 9,286
13
votes
Preventing people from forking and profiting over minor changes
When you release software as open source, it's your intention that others can take it and do whatever they want with it — either as copyleft (where they must do so under the same license) or as ...
- 9,286
13
votes
Recourse for forks ignoring open source license on original code in App Store?
It certainly sucks when people take your work and use it in ways against your permission, like copying your copyleft work without also sharing their changes. Fortunately you don't have to go straight ...
- 8,839
13
votes
Accepted
Can derivatives of CC BY-SA works be licensed under CC BY-NC-SA?
No, it’s not allowed.
It says on the license summary page:
No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the ...
- 5,580
13
votes
Accepted
Is ripping off an open source library okay?
Generally, a fork done without consultation of the original project (and without the intent to merge change back upstream eventually) is called a "hostile fork". Performing a hostile fork is -- as its ...
- 35.6k
13
votes
Someone open-sourced an un-open-source project
The Project_A is a decompiled version of another project (Project_B). But the original Project_B is not open source, AND Project_B never granted Person_A permission to open source the project.
You ...
- 1,357
12
votes
Is requiring a license a violation of the GPL? Can I get around it?
In theory, you have the right to get the complete source of that modified GCC. But no one can enforce your receipt of the source. The 'perpetrator' always has the legal choice to stop distributing, ...
- 778
12
votes
Theseus' Paradox applied to code copyright
In the United States, a determination of copyright infringement is based on two broad considerations:
the author's access to the original work
the new work's similarity to the original work
If you ...
- 35.6k
12
votes
Accepted
If I use a public API endpoint that has its source code licensed under AGPL in my app, do I need to disclose my source?
Making calls to a public API
If there's a public API server that has it's source code licensed with AGPL, and if I make an app that uses these public endpoints in some part of it, ... is this ...
- 2,465
12
votes
Accepted
Can I fork and modify gpl3 licensed code and release it with Apache v2 license?
If I fork a library that uses the GPL3 license and heavily modify it, can I then release the new library with an ApacheV2 license
No, you may not. Your library is still, by your own admission, a ...
- 47k
11
votes
Accepted
Can I license Python project under 3-clause BSD while it has GPL-based dependencies
tl;dr: Some, including the Free Software Foundation (FSF, publishers of the GPL) says no, you can't do this. Others say yes, you can.
The FSF considers a work a single program if the parts ...
- 9,286
11
votes
Is the output of an open source program licensed the same?
Your "knowledge" in the first paragraph is not correct. Only some Open Source licenses require that modifications of the software must be also licensed under the same license. These licenses are often ...
- 111
10
votes
Is the code generated from a GPLv3 EBNF grammar a derivative work?
TL;DR: yes, the software you distribute which builds on grammar files under copyright for which you have a GPLv3 license must also be licensed under the GPLv3.
Your software is made up of several ...
- 9,286
10
votes
Derived work of BSD licensed software, how do I indicate this?
If you adapt a file, you have to satisfy the licensing requirements for that file, whatever your changes and whatever the licensing requirements. If the module only specifies Copyright ... and BSD, I'...
- 4,173
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 ...
- 38.6k
9
votes
Accepted
What license options do I have for licensing ported source code?
The conservative position is to assume that your port is a derived work of the original. If you consult a lawyer, you might be offered a more-or-less 'clean room' procedure to try to avoid this, but ...
- 4,217
9
votes
Preventing people from forking and profiting over minor changes
"Ad supported" is a business model which simply doesn't work for Open Source because anyone can just disable the ads and redistribute the work. If you want to monetize open source software, you need ...
- 11.8k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible