Questions tagged [open-source-software]
For questions about open source software, which is licensed under an open source license. Generally, the source code is made available, and it provides a set of terms to allow others to use it. You may want to consider asking your question at Open Source Stack Exchange as well.
317
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Does the personal data use required to distribute software online make activity "commercial"?
The EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) has an exception for non-commercial/open source software. As an exception to the exception, commercial activity seems to explicitly include "the use of personal ...
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Faked GPL license
Lots of software is licensed under the GPL license. It is very well known and well understood. Like most legal documents the license is itself copyrighted, and while the license can be freely copied ...
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Short Weak Copyleft Software License [migrated]
Is there a short weak (or strong) copyleft license?
I like the GPL v3. The way that all its different sections interlock is quite poetic. However, this beauty comes at the cost of it being near ...
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Is Zero-Clause BSD legally binding?
Unilateral promises themselves are not legally binding, and donations do not constitute a valid contract, as these lack consideration (or "causa," a related concept in civil law). It's also ...
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3
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Can the Cyber Resilience Act make it illegal to retire?
Suppose Alice develops some software and releases it under an open source licence. She receives just enough money to be counted as "commercial". This may be donations from users, it may be ...
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2
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Can a software license be conditional on the actions of others?
I recently had an idea for a "threshold conditional" software license that works like this:
Any person/entity can purchase a license and gain the unconditional right to use the software any ...
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Can you host a version of Wikipedia on your own domain and charge for it?
I am reading through these notes, trying to piece together a picture of what the rules/laws are regarding Wikipedia content:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Mirrors_and_forks
https://en....
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When will the baseline patents for encoding/decoding the AAC format expire?
The MP4 container is the most ubiquitous video format in the world. It is commonly used with the H.264 video codec, of which there has been a lot written about when the patents for this codec will ...
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Can a company that releases code as GPL, use it privately?
If a company has a Github repo under GPL license, can they, as the owners of the original code, distribute closed-source copies of it, i.e do they have a different right over the code ?
- 198k
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Are there any AGPL-style licences that require source code modifications to be public?
So my understanding of the AGPL, is that it requires modifications to be distributed to the users of the network service, but I'm looking for a licence that would require any modifications (non-...
CommunityBot
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Firmware code written under GPLv3 was modified. What should be published? [closed]
The firmware for an embedded device (e.g., a toaster) is modified significantly. Algorithms are rewritten from scratch, the code is made compatible with different hardware, etc. The end (hardware) ...
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Have open-source hardware licenses ever been enforced when distributing a physical product?
As I have found out, there are "open-source hardware" licenses which are written in the spirit of "open-source software" licenses and require the user to publish a modified design ...
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2
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1
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115
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Commerical usage of sentence-transformers/multi-qa-mpnet-base-cos-v1 [closed]
We are trying to use a HuggingFace Embedding model - multi-qa-mpnet-base-cos-v1 for an internal Large Language Model powered application. While reading the documentation it says (not verbatim):
For ...
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151
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What if someone published program on invalid license and then fixed it?
I saw repository on GitHub where someone had LICENSE file as below:
Copyright year name
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in ...
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4
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8k
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Is it legal to profit from an open source software
I am planning on making a service that uses a modified open source software. Would it be legal for me to profit from it? I am not sure what information would be relevant to this so if I have missed ...
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2
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What legal conditions do I have to meet to open an open source website? [closed]
I'm working on a website for a pretty long time and in the close future I want to open it into the public. The problem is, my website collects personal data and cookies which (in my country - Poland) ...
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How does GPL affect a Makefile-only modification?
As a continuation of this question, does a Makefile modification when building GPL source mean my own program becomes GPL also ? For example, if some third-party GPL'd source contains exit(), and I ...
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Legality and license choice for reverse-engineered project
I reverse engineered (by sniffing+x32dbg) part of the protocol for a board game client in order to build an alternative client on top of it while still using the official servers. I open-sourced the ...
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Why do some licenses have a clause stating that one can't violate the law?
Example of such a clause in the Creative MLOpen RAIL-M dated August 22, 2022 used by runwayml/stable-diffusion-v1-5:
You agree not to use the Model or Derivatives of the Model:
In any way that ...
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3
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847
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Who can publish GPLv4?
I was thinking about the or later part that is often used in licensing
software. When reading https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html, I've found
this:
The Free Software Foundation may publish ...
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2
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Is there a body that assists in requesting source code from companies thay are required by license to release their codeass
In short, I want to have the source code of the kernel of a specific Android phone that is produced by a one specific reputable south Korean company.
They are using Android, thus they are obligated by ...
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114
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How to put a disclaimer about IP in an open source fangame? [closed]
I am creating a fangame. Specifically a game where you can open weapon cases from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for free and collect or trade skins that you obtain. The entire game source is my own ...
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3
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Does AGPL apply to products created by the software, or just the software?
I'm a 3D modeler by trade, and in the past I've used some software to create a base mesh for humanoid renders. I'm seeing now that, while it used to be AGPL and CC0, it's now entirely AGPL, and by ...
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GPL: distribute compiled binary [closed]
Is it legal to modify GPL v3.0 content and distribute a binary of the remixed content without disclosing the modified source code?
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8
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2
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265
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Can a child release his own work into e.g. the public domain?
I (15 years old; living in Germany) write software now for ~four years and wondered whether I can release it into the public domain or under some free software license without having to ask somebody. ...
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4
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1
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Websites routinely fail to distribute licenses for included software packages, should I? [closed]
I'm building a website using Next.js, using tons of npm packages in the process. I'm verifying that none of these packages use GPL or other licenses that would require me to publish my own source code....
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1
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Commonsclause with LGPL - is it legally bounding/strong to defend
Found this license:
“Commons Clause” License Condition v1.0
The Software is provided to you by the Licensor under the License, as defined below, subject to the following condition.
Without limiting ...
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2
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91
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Does the software we use to write code affect the licenses we must use?
I am a junior software developer and found the licensing confusing, partly because senior devs around me have no idea either.
Below I explore scenarios where a software developer uses other software. ...
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1
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276
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What is the difference between typeface derivative works and a "document created using the font"
I like the Humor Sans font and have been using it to create infographics. These are png/jpg files and do not contain information about the font typeface, nor do they contain any of the source code of ...
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Can an AI model licensed under the BigScience RAIL License v1.0 be used in a program that is useful for any domain?
Example: the AI model BLOOM is licensed under the BigScience RAIL License v1.0. The BigScience RAIL License v1.0 forbids that some types of usages:
You agree not to use the Model or Derivatives of ...
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4
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What is the definition of "substantial portions of Software" that is used in MIT License?
Text of MIT License is as follows:
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal ...
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57
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MIT license for software implementation of published algorithm with a patent in pending status
I am a researcher working at a public research institute. A research group from another country has published an algorithm in a peer-reviewed journal and provided a server implementation of it on ...
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1
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Could the OpenJDK license legally be changed to a commercial one?
I am aware of the new commercial licensing model for Oracle JDK. I also have operational experience with OpenJDK and Oracle JDK.
I have tried to find conclusive evidence that Open JDK can and must ...
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112
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Odoo Community Software as a Service [closed]
Excuse my ignorance in law and licensing, I have an inquiry regarding Odoo Community Edition that's licensed under LGPLv3, I am planning to develop some addons for it to be suitable for a specific ...
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1
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What are the provisions for mentioning the trademark or trade name of source code orobjects licensed in open source software for proprietary software?
I'm making software that will be proprietary software, which contains some source code or objects from several different open source licenses such as BSD 3-clause, MIT, MPL, Apache, and GPL 3.0, can I ...
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Is the non-applicability of copyright to software interfaces considered settled law?
In computer software, it's common for a system to expose an Application Programming Interface (API) for other software to interact with it. For example, a smart lightbulb might expose a SetBrightness(...
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323
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CopyFree, LGPL & GPL: is Closed Source Possible?
I am working on building an app for desktop deployment. I am using an open-source platform that, for the purposes of this question, can be considered to use a CopyFree license. That platform itself ...
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1
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57
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Where to include CC BY 3.0, CC BY 4.0, SIL OFL 1.1 attribution for a mobile app?
I want to cite the following
One SoundBible Sound found here: Attribution 3.0
FontAwesome5 (free license info) (used via react-native-vector-icons): react-native-vector-icons uses the TTF files so I'...
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Are shell scripts considered binaries for licensing purposes?
There are a number of licenses that contain the term "binary distribution". For example, https://github.com/boostorg/beast/blob/develop/LICENSE_1_0.txt:
A simple permissive license only ...
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What are the exactly steps need to do to meet a project requirements of aprache2 licnese?
When we find a web app on GitHub with apache2 license, we would like to host it for the public to visit.
From https://tldrlegal.com/license/apache-license-2.0-(apache-2.0)
Must part.
Include ...
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Theft as Distribution of Software
I recently posed a hypothetical to a lawyer who deals with software licensing (His role is to protect a company from accidentally misusing FOSS software) and got a startling response. My hypothetical ...
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Is it possible to use for commercial purposes code released with a license which allows it, even if it was patented afterwards?
This software was released as open source 2 years ago:
https://github.com/lululxvi/deeponet
The license allows commercial use:
https://github.com/lululxvi/deeponet/blob/master/LICENSE
However, end of ...
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How to find a US lawyer for consultation in the open-source + banking + blockchain space?
Considering writing open-source software in the banking/cryptocurrency space (in the USA). Want to do it properly, and have a few questions for how to navigate the space.
What's the type of lawyer I ...
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FOSS License compatibility
I have been struggling to understand license compatibility and how it manifests.
Two examples:
I have a program to which i wrote the codebase. This codebase then dynamically links to two different ...
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Grant access to previous public research results including IPR for the purpose of future commercial exploitation
We are building a project of technology transfer.
In the project, one partner is a university XXX; the main contact person who will work with us is a professor. Previously, the professor and his team ...
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Can I include EULA-licensed IP core in GPL codebase?
I work on little hardware project in Verilog. It would be published on GitLab and would be available for Open Source community. It is licensed as GPL 3.
I want to include external IP component in my ...
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Does BSD 3-clause extend to educational material
Problem
I am looking to teach a web development course and to help teach JavaScript I wanted to use a package licensed under BSD 3-clause. I am unsure if using the library to teach with violates the ...
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243
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License or not for open source code published by the manufacturer?
Do I need license for the Arduino code that a company has posted in their websites when I buy their sensors to use them to my Arduino? For instance, I buy a CO2 sensor and I use the company's code in ...
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161
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Can the GPL3 and MIT license be applied to closed-source software?
I recently found software containing only binaries (no access to source code) being distributed and dual-licensed under the GPL3 (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html) and MIT (https://...
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In the US, under what circumstances can I re-write code I previously wrote but do not own?
I write code for company X in the USA using popular technology Y. In the course of my job I end up developing a number of useful libraries/widgets/utilities for use within the Y ecosystem that have ...
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