55
votes
Accepted
Can I ignore an open source license if I checkout a version that was released prior to the code having any license?
Generally speaking, a licence grant is not revocable once it has been relied on. Once an author has published a piece of code under a licence, and someone has taken a copy on that basis, the author ...
- 51.1k
47
votes
Accepted
Can an NDA block GPL freedom number 4?
The FSF believes, in the jurisdictions they have considered, that the transfer of GPL-licensed software by an employer to an employee, for the fulfillment of their responsibilities as an agent of the ...
- 36.4k
41
votes
Is the term 'open source' a trademark?
International trademarks can be searched online in the WIPO Global Brand Database.
“open source” is trademarked in some areas, none relevant for software
OSI holds a US trademark for “Open Source ...
- 39.3k
41
votes
Is my software still "free" if I charge for its commercial use and not for non-commercial use?
You may charge money for distributing free (as-in-freedom) software.
However, if your license is a true FSF-approved free license, then charging based on purpose isn't so much a license violation as ...
- 36.4k
37
votes
Is the TeX typesetting system free and open source?
TeX was created before Open Source was formally defined. Its use is not restricted; it is stated explicitly in Knuth's writings that its methods and algorithms may be used freely for any purpose, ...
- 411
36
votes
Accepted
Which licenses give me a guarantee that a software I'm installing is completely open-source, free of closed-source dependencies or components?
No Open Source license does that. Even the GNU GPL license allows one program to interact with another non-free program via pipes, sockets, streams etc.
While the licenses can't do this, there are ...
- 7,973
34
votes
Can I disregard GPL just because I use autoconf?
The exception says that “you may include it”, where it is the build scripts generated by autoconf.
This is not a broad GPL exception that would apply to any GPL-licensed software. The autotools ...
- 39.3k
32
votes
What are the essential differences between the BSD and MIT licences?
A couple of things were not mentioned in the accepted answer:
documentation associated with the software
community adoption
BSD-2-Clause Plus Patent aka "BSD+Patent"
Documentation
Another ...
- 541
29
votes
Is the term 'open source' a trademark?
The OSI failed to secure a trademark on "open source" in 1999, and the term remains not trademarked.
You may use "open source" to mean virtually anything you want, without legal ramifications, but to ...
- 36.4k
29
votes
Is there a license that prevents someone from copying the entirety of the source code and claiming it as their own or using it with ill intent?
I don't want people copying all of my source code and claiming it as their own work
Any open source license will do this; even the most "bare bones" licenses (MIT, 2 clause BSD etc) require ...
- 20.7k
26
votes
Accepted
Is the TeX typesetting system free and open source?
Yes, it is open source, at least according to the Open Source Definition, the closest thing the community has to an agreed definition of open source. The clause that allows this is Clause 4:
...
- 20.7k
26
votes
Accepted
Is it possible that a future GPL version removes copyleft?
The crucial statement there is "terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation".
So yes, if the FSF should decide that a future version of the GPL ...
- 11.5k
25
votes
Trying to understand an old custom license
This is not a license, as it grants no rights.
By default all works are copyrighted and their allowed use is limited unless the rights owner gives you further permissions. Licenses grant further ...
- 795
24
votes
Can I ignore an open source license if I checkout a version that was released prior to the code having any license?
With licenses it is actually quite simple:
No license means no rights to you to even use the code for whatever purpose. Code being available somewhere for download doesn't imply any right to use it - ...
- 11.5k
22
votes
Is it possible that a future GPL version removes copyleft?
If code is licensed strictly under a specific version of the GNU GPL, future versions have no effect for that specifically-licensed code. For code that is licensed under "version 3 or any later ...
- 36.4k
21
votes
Can I ignore an open source license if I checkout a version that was released prior to the code having any license?
You have a misconception here. You're thinking that licenses take away your right to use a piece of code. In fact, licenses give you the right to use a piece of code. If there's no license, you can't ...
- 1,165
20
votes
Accepted
Trying to understand an old custom license
For (1), the only answer is "nobody knows" (apart from possibly the person who wrote the license). Given that, I would therefore be conservative and assume that it is a mandatory requirement....
- 20.7k
20
votes
Accepted
What is the license of Mojo🔥?
It seems that as of today, 2023-05-09, the only way to "use" Mojo is via the developer's playground:
The Mojo standard library, compiler, and runtime are not available for local development ...
- 20.7k
20
votes
Accepted
Can I remove payment requirement part of a MIT licensed library
In copyright terms, you can make any changes you like to MIT licensed software so long as you ensure that
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or ...
- 20.7k
18
votes
Which licenses give me a guarantee that a software I'm installing is completely open-source, free of closed-source dependencies or components?
Which licenses give me a guarantee that a software I'm installing is completely open-source, free of closed-source dependencies or components?
Unfortunately, a license cannot do that.
Here's the ...
- 451
17
votes
Is requiring a link to my site allowed for a FOSS license?
The idea to force users of the software to advertise the original author is not new. It was first seen in the 4-clause BSD License. There was a lot of criticism about the advertising clause, and it ...
- 7,399
17
votes
How can I protect the code from being 'rephrased' by AI to avoid license limitations?
I'm not sure anything needs to be done. Historically, the creation of a translation of a copyrighted work required the permission of the rightsholder. Others have argued that a machine translation ...
- 51.1k
15
votes
Accepted
Should I use my own license in a fork of another GitHub repository, which I've revamped completely?
The MIT license is very permissive; you are allowed to release your own work under a different license if it was based on something released under the MIT license.
See also this answer on Software ...
- 381
14
votes
Is my software still "free" if I charge for its commercial use and not for non-commercial use?
The main problem you will be having is with the freedom to redistribute copies (freedom 2 and 3). The GNU project codifies this freedom in GPL clarifying it's exact meaning:
You are free to ...
- 739
14
votes
Does a copyright notice in a file header affect the licensing?
A "license" simply means legal permission to do something from a rightsholder. The relevant question is: if the rightsholder sued you for exercising some right (e.g., copying or modifying ...
- 36.4k
14
votes
Accepted
Is CC-BY 4.0 attribution recursive?
I assume that by "Author B uses Work A to create Work B" you mean that Author B makes work B which is a copyright derivative of work A. Work C, then, is then a copyright derivative of both ...
- 51.1k
13
votes
Accepted
Is requiring a link to my site allowed for a FOSS license?
Let's break down this question in parts and start with the FOSS licenses common ground.
The common things about FOSS licenses are that
one is required to keep the copyright notices of previous ...
- 11.5k
13
votes
Accepted
How does GPL differ from CC BY-NC-SA?
CC BY-NC-SA is a copyleft-style licence (the "SA" bit), but there exist many other copyleft licences besides CC BY-NC-SA. The GPL is pretty clear that selling GPL-covered code is ...
- 51.1k
13
votes
Accepted
Does Licensing open-source prevent me from selling the product?
Yes, it is entirely legal to make money with open-source software.
You are allowed to sell copies of open-source software, but that is not likely to create a sustainable business, because each ...
- 32.2k
13
votes
Accepted
Splitting LGPL License into certain folders/files
As this seems to be a common misconception: how you lay out your files in a filesystem or repository fundamentally has no bearing on their licensing. Assuming you are the copyright holder, you can ...
- 20.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible