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.
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Trade restrictions on open source software
Apparently the US has put Huawei on a trade blacklist that prevents US companies to trade with Huawei. With hardware and proprietary software it is straightforward how this can be executed (don't make ...
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Is it legal to write software to convert data from a proprietary format?
I have created a piece of software that converts a proprietary format from the database blob of a large, well known commercial software company into the equivalent open source data type. The large ...
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At what point and how should I change the license/Copyright notice when I create a derivative?
If I take a piece of software that is licensed as MIT (quoted at the end), and use it as a scaffold to create for my own thing, do I need to keep including the old license perpetually? This would seem ...
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Do I need to include the full text of the MIT license in the UI of my app?
We're using an open-source software library which is distributed under the MIT license. The key line of the license is as follows:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be ...
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How are open source licenses valid without consideration?
I'm not a lawyer or law student in any capacity, but I've read in multiple sources that a contract is not valid unless there is consideration for both parties.
With this in mind, how can licenses for ...
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Who owns the code when my employer wants something similar to my existing open source project?
I have a similar situation to this question.
My employer hired me knowing that I work on some open source projects, but for a long time, showed no interest in my open source projects. Now they want ...
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Do international sanctions have an impact on Open Source Software?
Background
Recently I was reading about embargoes and sanctions on Iran (also this link) and before Sudan, and it got me thinking about how they could impact Open Source Software. Sanctions being ...
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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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Is it legal to rewrite a Java (OpenJDK) library into another programming language under GPL?
Is it legal for me to re-implement a Java library in another programming language under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 (text)?
I would mimic their exact API (package, class, and ...
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Can a user sell my software (MIT license) without modification?
Basically, I was just wondering if I release a piece of open source software under the MIT license, does that mean that someone could take it and sell it onto people without doing any modification to ...
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Is a copyright notice with a non-existent name invalid?
If a person changes their name, do any copyrights registered to them still apply?
Or at least, as this is the subject in mind, does any software licensed to them still hold the same copyright?
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Is it legal to use the Tor Network and Tor Software in the United States?
Is it legal to use the following provided by the Tor Project:
Using the Tor Browser
Using the Tor Network
Browsing *.onion domains
Browsing the "Hidden Wiki"
Provided I'm not doing anything illegal ...
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Is it legal for manufacturers to lock bootloaders on Android phones?
Some backgroud :
A bootloader is a very low level piece of software that runs first and loads an operating system of some other tool. On a lot of new Android devices the bootloader is "locked", that ...
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What are the potential legal consequences for a company that has GPL violations?
In the news recently was that the smartphone company Xiaomi has not released the kernel source code for its Android phone that has been on the market for over 3 months. Since Android is based on the ...
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Methods for obtaining source code from an uncooperative company
I purchased a commercial product in the United States that has user-upgradable firmware available by unrestricted download. I am positive this firmware is based on an open-source project licensed ...
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Open source idea closely related to product at work
For a while I have had an idea for an open source project. Now, I've started building something similar at work as an internal tool (so not public). So does that mean I can not go on and do the ...
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Open source rocket development
Is it possible to collaborate openly (publicly) world-wide with others to develop a suborbital/orbital capable rocket/launcher and to publish the resulting know-how (both software and hardware)? There ...
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Am I allowed to open source my Dr. Seuss txt files on GitHub?
I've been working on building a Dr. Seuss dataset which provides training data for my recurrent neural network. The goal is to use machine learning to get the computer to generate Seuss-like works.
...
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SIL OFL License v1.1 and Embedding Icon Fonts in Software Binaries
I am unclear on some of the nuances of the OFL when it comes to things like modifications and what that means in terms of permission to redistribute it.
My use-case is as follows:
I developed a ...
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How can I exclude any rights for my own software projects from the contract?
I'm about to sign a long terms terms contract for software development and maintenance.
This job implies working with several applications and creating new ones. It seems to be difficult to put all of ...
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What are the rights of the software owners if their software is used to make money?
Let's assume that I have an iPhone and
I tell how to use it (e.g. how an app is downloaded, how a photo is taken),
I mention about its functions, features (e.g. how a contact is created, how Wi-Fi is ...
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If an app is built on a GPL Operating System must it also be GPL?
If an app is built on a GPL Operating System must it also be GPL?
