New answers tagged proprietary-code
2
Acme Corp. has created an unholy legal mess, both for themselves, Mr. Coyote, and Foobar, Inc.
Acme Corp. has committed two acts of copyright infringement: Obviously Foobar's code, which they were not allowed to copy at all. But also all the GPL licensed code: Acme created a derived work of the GPL licensed code. They couldn't distribute it under the GPL ...
-1
First, I AM NOT A LAWYER. Nothing I say should be used as legal advice. Now on to my answer.
It depends
If Wile E. Coyote isn't interested in changing the code, but just download it to view it he should just delete the code from his computer. In most jurisdictions there is no legal requirement to report spreading confidential code. As long as Mr. Coyote isn'...
15
Mr. Coyote should talk to his lawyers ASAP. While he was unaware that the code he was using was a copyright violation, he could make a reasonable defense against punitive damages. However, now he is aware (or has a strong suspicion) it is a copyright violation and continues to use it, a court will look far less favourably on him.
Unrelated to that:
Let's ...
0
You fear that the competence will take your software as it is, and make a competing product.
But in practice this is not viable if it is under the Affero License, as by just creating a service connected to the Internet they would need to publish their software. Hence you could borrow it too.
In reality libre technology forks gets traction only if who creates ...
3
The developers behind the Timescale database are attempting to do something in this direction with their license, see e.g. the post on their blog.
I am unable to judge, whether this has any chance of surviving in a legal court, but I think it is an interesting attempt anyway ...
2
According to this page [1], these are the most restrictive:
European Union Public License 1.1
European Union Public License 1.2
GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
Open Software License 3.0
Personally, I use Open Software License 3.0 with my projects.
https://choosealicense.com/appendix
29
There is no free software / open source license that will satisfy your requirements. These licenses generally focus on the freedoms of end users, they are not trying to restrict anyone. The freedom to use software for any purpose (including to compete with your offerings) is considered essential.
Using a freedom-preserving license with the purpose of ...
3
The GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 is a step in the right direction, but unfortunately doesn't hit the mark completely. Although it does mandate that users who interact with the licensed material via network are given the right to receive a copy of the source code, it doesn't mandate publishing the data.
1
I would say that interpreter provides an isolation and would just give some examples:
If I distribute a program including LuaJ and some lua script, is that one program? I would say so. And if I publish the lua script I wrote for it to be GPL, does it mean that LuaJ is GPL? I hope we see the problem here. That should not change what license LuaJ is.
Also, ...
4
The GPL is not specific to any technology like Java vs Lua, Windows vs Linux. To determine the scope of the GPL, we have but one question to consider: does this form a single program?
This question is not for the GPL to answer, it is a question for copyright law. However, the GPL authors have opinions on this question, which I regard as sufficiently ...
4
The GPL only applies to derivative works of the GPL-covered software. In particular: if you modify the covered software, or if you include the covered software (whether in whole or in part) into another software such as by copying code or by linking a library.
The GPL does not extend to other programs, even if those other programs communicate with the GPL-...
0
What e.g. Google does with Android (Linux-based) is to publish the open source pieces (the kernel plus any patches, libraries, ...), while keeping propietary pieces (like programs running on said kernel) private. That is legally OK.
Note that GPLv2 does allow you to make it so no modified kernel can be installed on the device (for example, ship it on an ...
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