14
votes
Accepted
Why is the Non-Profit Open Software License (NPOSL) OSI-approved?
NPOSL is an Open Source license; you've made a common reading error with the license text. It's the licensor, not the licensee, that needs to be a non-profit. In other words, a non-profit could ...
- 8,533
14
votes
Accepted
Open-source license (probably not FLOSS) that allows "use in a commercial context" but disallow "to sell the software or modified versions"?
There are no open-source licenses that forbid selling copies of the software, because that kind of restriction is not allowed in a license that is recognized as an open-source license by the community/...
- 23.4k
11
votes
Accepted
Is a government organisation commercial or non-commercial?
It depends. The type of user itself doesn't matter, at least according to Creative Commons. It is how you use it that matters. From their FAQ:
Does my use violate the NonCommercial clause of the ...
- 8,533
11
votes
Accepted
Using CC-NC material inside a freemium app
I do not think this is a question that has a straightforward yes or no answer.
The CC NC clause is really hard to get a grasp on, and Creative Commons do not provide much guidance about it. Their FAQ:...
- 8,705
9
votes
An open-source code license: zero-cost for open-source only
Disallowing commercial use is a restriction that open-source licenses are not allowed to have. Any license that doesn't allow you to use the software for commercial purposes is not considered to be an ...
- 23.4k
9
votes
Accepted
Is Geogebra's "non-commercial only GPL3" license valid?
The Geogebra license is nonsensical. You are absolutely correct: "GPL for non-commercial use only" is an impossible combination. The GPL specifically forbids the imposition of any additional ...
- 206
7
votes
What "non-commercial" license is that?
A license for public distribution should be clear as to what people can do with it. "Non-commercial" isn't clear. There's room for a lot of disagreement about what "commercial" means. Can I ...
- 554
7
votes
Is it legal to release an old commercial software as free software?
I'm in no way a lawyer, and this is something that you should consult a lawyer for, in terms of actual wording in your agreements/contracts...
The ability to license a work belongs to whoever owns ...
- 6,239
7
votes
Accepted
Can it be possible to prevent user from changing donate link in a GPL licenced project?
No, this is not really possible.
The next closes thing that you could do is to add an additional term under GPLv3 section 7:
7(b) to require the “preservation of specified reasonable legal notices ...
- 33.8k
7
votes
How is 'commercial use' of software defined?
"Non-commercial" is always tricky, as it is not black or white. Actually, this is also one way of reasoning that any restriction of the purpose puts a license out-of-scope for open-source (...
- 8,460
6
votes
Can I sell personal/commercial licenses for an Open Source product?
If it is Free Software, getting the source and removing the "buy me" nag should trivial to do, quickly followed by a new github with the code posted.
To do what you want, you simply have a not too ...
- 975
6
votes
Software license that says "you can use this source code commercially as long as you don't also use any of the included art assets"?
The easiest approach is to license the source code under one license and art assets under another license. The code can be under an open source license, and the art under a non-commercial license like ...
- 31.3k
6
votes
Source code distribution without commercial use
The Open Source Definition and also the Free Software Foundation specifically insist that no restrictions on use are allowed. The FSF even encourages making money off software, as long as the license ...
- 4,989
6
votes
Package that includes a library file with non-commercial license
There is no universal rule. You have to file a bug and ask.
In general, it is probably safest to assume that the most restrictive or most specific license terms apply, unless there is some indication ...
- 3,912
5
votes
Accepted
Legal to use "research-only" data in an open source product?
Given the details you give in comments, we can consider that your software would most likely be a derivative of the original research-only / non-commercial data.
Then the question is what the license ...
- 5,297
5
votes
Accepted
Can I release a fork of an LGPL project under a commercial licence?
As we say in this question, "The copyright holder is never beholden to the rules of the holder's own license grant". The copyright holder is not bound by his/her own licence.
Suppose that Alice ...
- 38.8k
5
votes
Accepted
I have a license in mind but what should I include in the license file?
Section 4.a of the CC BY-NC-ND license clearly says "You must include a copy of, or the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) for, this License with every copy of the Work You Distribute or Publicly ...
- 3,420
4
votes
Using CC BY-NC-ND images on website with ads
A commercial use is one primarily intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation. (Source: Creative commons)
So if you only have the adverts for financing the page it's ok, but when you ...
- 244
4
votes
Is a government organisation commercial or non-commercial?
The CC-BY-NC-4.0 license contains a definition of noncommercial in Section 1.i:
NonCommercial means not primarily intended for or directed towards
commercial advantage or monetary compensation. ...
- 3,811
4
votes
Accepted
Is a newspaper a commercial activity in regard to CreativeCommons NC clause?
The article you reference obviously is lacking proper crediting at the minimum.
You should contact them so they can fix this alright. You should aslo alert them that they may need a proper ...
- 13.9k
4
votes
Accepted
Open source crypto project liability
If someone sued Red Hat, for example, if Red Hat (or the computer) crashed and the person lost all of their stuff, that the ruling would likely absolve Red Hat of responsibility
IANAL/IANYL. ...
- 38.8k
4
votes
Restrict Apache 2.0 to non-commercial use only
As a permissive license, the Apache 2.0 license does not prevent extra restrictions. The code may be used in any project as long as the attribution requirements are met. But such projects would not be ...
- 33.8k
4
votes
Accepted
Using a person's name for an open source project
Personality rights differ wildly between jurisdictions, especially between common-law and civil-law jurisdictions. In general, you have no right to use another person's name or likeness. There is no ...
- 33.8k
4
votes
Accepted
Linking to CC-BY-NC Content
If your application does not rely on those as an integral part and the sound files are not distributed with your application: no issue. Just offers your user the possibility to use whatever sound ...
- 8,460
4
votes
Does a non-commercial license like CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 preclude a work to be sold for money?
All of this is entirely unclear. The NonCommercial clause is intent-based, and relies on a concept of ”commercial advantage“ that is not further defined.
Arguably, a NC-licensed work can be provided ...
- 33.8k
3
votes
Can I sell personal/commercial licenses for an Open Source product?
There are a few solutions:
Qt is released under both a commercial license and the LGPL. Many companies find the LGPL license too contaminating (must release derivative works, no static-linking, ...
- 153
3
votes
Accepted
MIT License for a jointly developed website
You can absolutely have multiple names in a copyright notice, if the licensed work has multiple authors. In some jurisdictions there's also the concept of “joint authorship” that might apply here. You ...
- 33.8k
3
votes
Accepted
What "non-commercial" license is that?
You are correct that the license appears to be a modified BSD 2-clause license, with non-commercial language added, and that the license is not Open Source. This is similar to the "Academic Public ...
- 749
3
votes
Accepted
I want to apply the Apache 2.0 Licence to my code. Should I submit it to someone?
Copyright is automatic when you write the work - see copyright.gov for the US.
Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible ...
- 359
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible