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.
318
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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?
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Legality of dual use software that could help with games
Say I have tremors, and I edit my GPL mouse driver to use image analysis to identify icons on the screen that I am trying to click on, and click on them for me, similar to a snap to grid functionality....
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Is it illegal to copy commercial software features into an open source project?
Imagine I work for a company that has a software X, no algorithm in this software is patented.
If I want to create an open source software Z that has similar features as software X by looking into the ...
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Are open source software licenses really irevocable under US law?
Many open source software licenses, such as the Apache 2.0, the GPL ver 3, the EUPL ver 1.2, the OSL ver 3.0, and other copyleft licenses such as the CC-BY-SA 2.0 license purport to provide a license ...
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If one is the owner of an MIT licence, can that person relicense the software?
Suppose that someone (S) has supervised a group of students for a school project to produce software. This software is licensed under the MIT License and the copyright notice caries the name of the ...
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Can I get in legal trouble for open sourcing an unofficial wrapper for an API? (EU Law) [closed]
A while ago, I programmed a very simple API-Wrapper for a search engine and made it Open Source (Licensed under MIT). All it basically does, is using the very same REST-API the actual website uses as ...
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Can a copyright holder legally remove another holder from license copyright, then expand it to all contributors?
The original author of a MIT-licensed project "merged" a large set of changes I authored, which included an addition of my name to the copyright line of the license. Later on, the original ...
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Are the graphic assets distributed with an open source software project covered under the software license?
I have an open source software project under the 3-Clause BSD license, which includes a logo in its README. Recently, working on another project, I have found that the license text does not explicitly ...
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567
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Is it legal to use leaked documents for open source development?
Lets say a specific data structure is only documented in a confidential document, which can not be found over the official websites.
If a developer can find a copy of this document via Google (on an ...
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Can I sell a mobile app that contains definitions from a GPL licensed dictionary?
I am developing a mobile word game in which the word list and word definitions come from the GCIDE Dictionary. According to my research this software is released under the GNU General Public License.
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Is an SDPX header legally equivalent to a license header?
I consider to use SDPX headers in stead of the full license headers in my code. However, I wonder whether this is actually legally equivalent.
So, for context, this is the SDPX license list: https://...
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Can an employee of a non-profit sign CLA and contribute to open source project under a copyright of a for-profit
I am mostly thinking in the context of USA.
If there is a non-profit X 501(c)(3) with an employee A. Can this employee A contribute during work hours to an open source project which requires them to ...
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Publishing anti-forensic hard drive firmware
Forensic write-blockers, such as the TD3, sequentially copy data from one hard drive to a second drive ("cloning" the drive) while preventing the first hard drive from receiving any write ...
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Software development under BSD license [closed]
I am employed full time developing software. The company I am working for agreed to have the software under a BSD license.
If I leave the company, is there any legal problem if I use the software as I ...
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What avenues exist for licensing software code to one's employer while retaining the rights to use it in other projects?
Let's say someone works on personal software projects on their own time while also working for a software company. One day a situation arises such that the source code of one of these personal ...
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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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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 the maintainers of a LGPL project use contributed code after the original contributor withdrew it and was kicked out from the community?
Suppose that out there in the web there is a project, let's call it <PROJECT NAME>, licensed under LGPL v 2.1 or, at the end user's discretion, above.
An external contributor (not officially ...
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230
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Is it legal to sell video courses on Udemy by using open source or not open source software?
I see people who sell courses about topics in the informatics sector on Udemy, such as system administration, network administration, cyber security, programming languages, etc. They use/run software ...
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112
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How to patent a technology as public domain? [duplicate]
If an inventor comes up with a technology that could benefit humankind and instead of keeping it for themselves they decide they want to make it freely available to all, what would the legal process ...
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Could I convert an HTML template under MIT to a WordPress theme and sell it?
I found an HTML blog template under the MIT license, and I would like to convert it to a WordPress theme and sell it (for example, on ThemeForest). If I understand correctly, the MIT license will ...
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Legal issue with open source font?
I use a free, open source font called "Metropolis" for my webpages.
However, apparently there now is a legal issue due to similarities to a licensed font called "Gotham", owned by ...
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Fallback license for the case public domain is unavailable [closed]
Suppose a software developer wants to release a software project into the public domain. However the developer knows that this sometimes causes more troubles than it solves due to the problem that ...
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Is it possible to have a software license that is free for people, but expensive for mega corporations?
I've been searching for a software license that seems like it should exist. The fact that I'm not finding it anywhere makes me wonder if it's just not possible.
This page has a pretty good list of ...
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Can I use Creative-Commons Share-alike software in a commercial server application?
I'd like to write a computer program that runs on a server.
This program leverages the popular Express.js library which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 USA license.
...
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205
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Open Source liability if I accept donations?
If I have an open source project with the MIT license and I accept donations, does that change my liability?
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410
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Does AGPL 3 requeired to give free services
I found the following lines about AGPL3 and I am not sure about the correct way to interpret it.
Does AGPL3 oblige me to give my cloud services that connected to the app for free or is it only the ...
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Copyrights of an application with similar name to another application
i has writing a php framework that its features is most important features that are exists in codeigniter and laravel and very very another features that is not exists in another frameworks. it's a ...
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Can textbook questions be quoted in the source code of an open source project?
The specific case I am referring to is here: https://github.com/dharmatech/Symbolism#examples. I am considering following suit and quote textbook questions which act as test cases in my own open ...
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Can I put a copyright notice on modified open source files?
I have a software project which is essentially a heavily modified piece of open source software. I'm wanting to add copyright notices to the file headers to protect my work, as it is possible for ...
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136
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Can I relicense GPL software I make even if there are contributors?
I am about to release an open-source library (it's a derivative, but the original is MIT licensed). I'm considering releasing under GPLv3, especially since my understanding is that as the copyright ...
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Is there a license that lets only the company the rights to earn money with the code, but does not forbid others to use it?
Is there a License that permits only the company that published the code to earn money using it, by selling products or services that include that code?.
The license should let in addition the ability ...
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Could this interpretation of open source be compatible with GPL 2?
Supposing I made a fork of a project licensed under GPL 2 and made some modifications to it, could I then release source only by request, for only snapshots and not the stable build, without making ...
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TikTok/WeChat bans and open source software
The executive orders dealing with TikTok and WeChat don't apply to just those particular pieces of software, but "any transaction by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the ...
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Is it legit to fork an unlicensed repository for non-commercial purposes?
Edit: bear in mind that I'm not asking for which license, I'm asking whether it's fair or not.
I want to use the treepedia_dl_public library as a core part of a new website. I checked the repository ...
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GitHub - Can I legally commit proprietary source code in a private repository?
I maintain an open-source application project, which I committed in a public GitHub repository. The source code I wrote is open-source (under MIT license) and owned by me, however it depends on a ...
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How to register a license for a software in India?
I have decided that I want to go ahead with the AGPL license for my software. What is the procedure that one has to go through in India so that the LICENSE holds in court. Will a LICENSE file along ...
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Are Word-Frequency lists copyrightable?
If someone generates word frequency lists somehow. For example by analysing a web corpus or data from keyboards. Is this form of list of words and their frequencies copyrightable? For example if ...
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Ownership of sites and smart contracts
If I am an owner of a site, I can place restrictions on its usage even if the site software is licensed under an open source license such as GPL or AGPL, right? Which law allows me to place such ...
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I believe [program] violates GPL, do I need to sue the author before using its source code?
Let's say there's a program ("ABC") which is licensed under GPL. There's a similar program ("CAD") on the market, which I believe is a modified ABC. It is therefore in violation of ...
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What does the patent litigation piece of the Apache License mean?
I am looking at this from Wikipedia:
The Apache License 2.0 makes sure that the user does not have to worry about infringing any patents by using the software. The user is granted a license to any ...
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Can I embed "public available" scientific data in my app?
I have written some (smallish) scientific apps which I would like to make public (open source). They use scientific data sets from NIST such as this.
It would make sense to add a (slightly cleaned up) ...
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Do I have to adhere to my own software licences for them to remain enforceable?
I have written a software application and an accompanying software library. When users use this application, they will write code externally to it which also makes use of the software library. The ...
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Does the acceptance of a software licence constitute a contract? Can such a contract be closed without using said software?
This question revolves around the (unresolved) question in the open source community, whether "dynamic linking" against a GPL-licensed library requires your software to be GPL-licensed, as well. I ...
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Is writing articles by fixing Google Translate Copyright Infringement?
I am currently looking for documentation for software in a non-English language, but there is only documentation on the software in English.
In order to help other non-English speakers, I decided to ...
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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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Could i "Publish" a Open-Source Game/Software on a Platform without consens of the Development Team
If i saw a Software or Game that is Open-Source (like on GitHub).
Could i be something like a "Publisher" and take this Open-Source Game and put it on a Platform (like Steam) and put my Number as a ...
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Can my former employer come after me for developing software after I left them?
I worked with a company (Company A) in the US as a developer for two years that utilized third party API's. I recently left that company to work elsewhere (new company (Company B) is a completely ...
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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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Copyright in copyleft licence?
Is the copyright mentioned in GPL v3 used just for the sake of defining the word? (It's not copyrighted, but the word encompasses the same actions that would violate the copyright if it was ...
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