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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Is each version of a software considered a "derivative work"?
Originally asked in Software Engineering but a user raised it is more a legal question than an engineering one.
Let's suppose there is a software at version a1 in code repository A on an online code ...
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Can minors publish open source software?
If a minor releases software under a FOSS license, is the license binding? Could the minor sue a violator?
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Sales of equipment using hardware that uses OSS developed by the supplier
Suppose that a company (CoA) develops and sells equipment which comes with a software system (SysA) to run it. This equipment is built using associated hardware (HwB) developed by another company (CoB)...
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Fork published on NuGet confusing users / unlist request
Recently I got an e-mail from a package maintainer asking me to unlist my fork of said package from NuGet due to my fork "confusing nuget users".
I've never encountered a request like this ...
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Open Source License and Copyright Text
If I receive an open source software (for instance, a SaaS application) which contains some open source libraries or packages that I am familiar with, but without the inclusion of the license text (as ...
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Use Mint Y theme look and feel in MIT licensed library
I'm writing an UI library for JavaScript. I wish to release my work under the MIT license. As part as my code I wish to provide a hand crafted theme based on the look and feel of the Mint Y family of ...
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Licensing confusion with Github and Stack Exchange
I posted code on Github with an Apache2 license but left the part "Copyright {yyyy} {name of copyright owner}" instead of adding the year and my name. Then I copied the code from Github and ...
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Is a website using behind the scenes software X a "copy" or "substantial portion" of software X?
The MIT license says:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
Bob finds a nice piece of MIT-licensed software ...
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Is creating a simulator/mock of an API considered "derivative work"?
We have a number of clients integrating their software with a specific third party service via a HTTP REST API. In order for our clients to be able to test efficiently their software we need to create ...
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130
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Can a developer claim credit / ownership of my software licensed under the MIT License?
A user forked a repository made by me that is licensed by the MIT License. He made a few changes to the code and added the following line to the README.md
Made by [HisName]! Contact me at [HisName]#...
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Open Source project change license from BSD 3 Clause to Lgpl-2.1
If a software was released under BSD 3 Clause license, how can I rerelease it with my changes under Lgpl-2.1 with Commonsclause?
What are the requirements and my obligations?
More about later, here:
...
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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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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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Enforcing the GPL license on software
I published a software project under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3.0. I have written the code behind it, hence I am the copyright holder.
According to the AGPL license, anyone who ...
- 103
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Using code snippets contributed by you in a library/project with restrictive license
Years ago I contributed some code snippets to a C++ library released with GPL license. Currently I am working on some closed-source commercial project where these snippets could be very helpful.
...
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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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111
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Can a developer use someone else's product name as an Open Source project name?
Suppose that an open source developer wants to use the product name ninjago owed by Lego for the name of an Open Source project. Is it allowed to base the project name on Lego brand? Also can the ...
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How long does a GPL licencee have to respond to a source code request before it becomes a GPL violation?
I have requested source code for a product that contains software licensed under GPL 2. The product includes a written offer to provide source code if you send a written request by email. The offer is ...
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1
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66
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Does the APACH2 Licence include the implementation of algorithms?
If some algorithm is written in some programming language and licenced under APACHE2 and I rewrote it in another programming language, should the new code be considered as a derivative work or it is a ...
- 101
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236
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Can I use MongoDB Community for profit?
Recently Mongo has relicensed MongoDB under their own custom license.
Suppose that a developer D plans to use MongoDB Community on his or her own self hosted servers.
Suppose further that D will use ...
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144
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Is written permission from the owner of unlicensed code sufficient for modification and usage without consequences?
I recently found a repository on GitHub that I found quite interesting. I wanted to modify and use it in my project; however, the code is unlicensed. I proceeded to email the owner of the repository ...
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158
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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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81
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How to abide by software license when forking source code
I am forking a source code repository. The repository contains a file, LICENSE.TXT, which reads:
"MIT License
Copyright (c) 2021 Microsoft
[...]
The above copyright notice and this permission ...
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1
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257
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Is it legal to make encryption breaking technology public?
Much of our critical infrastructure relies on encryption as the bedrock of its security. Encryption, however, is a practically a "very hard" mathematical problem that will take eternity to ...
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182
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Is my programming knowledge contaminated?
We know that ideas are not copyrightable (except for patent related issues), but expressions are (idea–expression dichotomy). However, after reading about clean room design, I got somewhat confused. ...
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1
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158
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If commercial use is not mentioned in a software license like BSD, is it implied to freely do so?
BSD talks mostly about redistribution and doesn't even mention commercial use or something like "for any purpose". Therefore they don't need to explicitly state "commercial use is ...
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Why does the open source license BSD-Clause 2/3 not have something like "to deal in the Software without restriction?
Every article that I've read about BSD-Clause 2 and 3 pretty much said that the licensed software is free of restrictions/any purpose as long as you follow what the licenses say, but the actual ...
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Is it legal to write a software license if I'm not a licensed attorney?
I was hoping to create my own open-source license since none of the existing ones seem to work for what I want. However, someone mentioned to me that in the USA it's illegal to practice law without a ...
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3
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GPLv3-licensed project on Github seems to try to restrict commercial use
I found an interesting project (tool for numerical simulations) on Github with the following paragraph in its README:
You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
GNU General ...
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Can I impose the requirement of a paid license if and only if my software is offered as a service?
I'm getting ready to open source a project that facilitates the deployment, maintenance, and orchestration of data platforms on just about any architecture (locally, on any cloud of your choosing, on ...
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63
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GPL-v3 using along with closed source via rest api
I want to use CMS distributed under GPL-v3 licenses. I am building a web application with closed code and my app invokes via REST API backend under GPL-v3. Question: is it legal to use GPL-v3 along ...
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105
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Can I develop open source software to parse a copyrighted document for private use?
I obtained a foreign language dictionary in PDF format, whose copyright information states the following:
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part
of ...
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157
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Is it legal to decompile Apple Open Source components?
I want to write a blogpost / record a screencast about macOS opensource components. I was going to decompile those opensource components and I am not sure if it would be legal. MacOS software license ...
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98
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Making public/open-source datasets from royalty-free image sources
I am working on a small face-related dataset that will be publicly available for open research. I have looked into many copyright-free image sources like https://pikwizard.com/ and https://www.pexels....
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321
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What public evidence suggests that AWS violated the AGPL by deploying MongoDB?
A few years ago (2018), the software package MongoDB, freely available including source code, was relicensed. The original license was the infamous AGPL, which required anybody offering modified ...
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Who owns the intellectual property an open-source project with external contributions?
Say a company has created a software product all by itself and decides to open-source it. As long as the contributions to the product are done by the company, the intellectual property of the the ...
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Use of gplv2 licensed code in server
Suppose that someone develops a web application, and found a piece of code that they would like to add to their server. But that code is licensed under the GPLv2 license. Does that mean that if they ...
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If I post my own code to Stack Overflow, can I then use that code in a project that uses a license other than CC-BY-SA?
Suppose that I have a block of code that represents my own original work (i.e. I am the copyright holder), and that I would like to post this code on Stack Overflow--either to answer someone else's ...
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115
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What open-source licence allows internal industry research and development, but not direct commercialization
I need an open source license which allows for commercial entities to join academic and government entities, and to use our tools in their internal research and development. I need to bar the direct ...
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Collecting chess games for an open source database
There are a few questions on copyright and chess already, but I'm going to be a bit more specific.
There currently are big, commercial databases of chess games, such as Chessbase's Mega Database. ...
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6
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How do trademarks apply to Open Source?
How do trademarks apply to open-source?
Hypothetical:
In the early 1990s, there is a company operating under the name Portable Network Graphics, who brands their products with the mark PNG. They ...
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Obtaining source code from an uncooperative company when you're an author
According to an answer on Methods for obtaining source code from an uncooperative company:
You're probably out of luck. The company distributing this firmware has an obligation to provide you the ...
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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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Am I free to make use of code snippets found in a bachelor's thesis under an open-source license?
I found an interesting bachelor's thesis recently, with some ideas in it that I have not seen applied in any sort of library that I've come across before. Thus, I would like to create my own library ...
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8
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Do I really have to Open Source my project?
I'm currently working on a software which uses another software under the GPL version 3 license:
https://github.com/ViaVersion/ViaVersion/blob/dev/LICENSE
Now someone just came to me and said I have ...
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482
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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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201
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What are the implications of a NASA Open Source Agreement version 1.3
There is this code released under NASA Open Source Agreement version 1.3.
I don't get the license. Can I use the code in a commercial product? Any limitation?
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Retaining maximum free/open-source freedoms in a software license except for source redistribution
There are several free/open-source licenses (e.g. GPLv3, Apache 2.0, MIT) that allow several freedoms to the user of a software.
Generally if you grant access to an individual to use software under ...
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Does hosting, developer or user location determine which laws apply?
Example scenario:
I live in Switzerland and develop a software. I publish the source code (and maybe a binary executable file) on a server located in the USA. Let's also assume a user from another ...
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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?
