Questions tagged [software]
For questions involving programming underlying computers and machines. Consider using the [open-source-software] tag if the question is about open source software or licensing.
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Licensing of template code
GitHub has template repositories, that make it easy to offer starter code for new projects. I want to allow anyone to generate their projects from my template and then change the license to whatever ...
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Is it considered a breach of confidentiality if data is uploaded to a website which only makes that data available to the uploader?
I'm a developer working at a company that handles sensitive banking information and recently, I've had troubles organising my code and thus posted it in a private repository on Github, which only I ...
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Does copyright protect your design and functionality?
I created a program that was built on a Windows Form Application. An employer completely copied the design and functionality of the program and re-created it on a website. The website is identical to ...
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MongoDB Wire protocol: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License
MongoDB Wire Protocol Specification is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. So as per the license, we may not use or adapt this material ...
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Is Kali Linux's "Undercover" mode legal?
Kali Linux, a Linux distribution for ethical hackers and penetration testers, has an "Undercover" mode that makes its UI look like Windows 10. It copies the desktop background, Windows logo ...
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Can you transfer a Windows license from hardware to a VM running on the hardware?
I bought a computer with Windows, and I am currently dual-booting Windows and Linux. I would like to remove Windows from the computer itself and install it in a virtual machine (VM) in Linux using the ...
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Is it "Commercial Use" when I use an image viewer software on a company laptop, but only for private purposes?
A lot of software is provided "free for personal use, licensed for commercial use".
For example, the FastStone Image Viewer is provided with these conditions:
FastStone Image Viewer ... ...
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Can you have a software patent for a method that can be done in way one only?
Is it possible to patent a software to do something which can only be done in one way due to limitations well known to everyone? Here is the scenario, I want to acquire an image from a digital sensor ...
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Would reproducing a game for a school class fall within fair use?
For a game development/software engineering course that I am designing (in the public schools), I would like the final course activity to involve creating a game as a whole class over a long period. ...
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Can "Right to Repair" laws (or other laws) require a company to open source their proprietary firmware?
AFAIK, there are no prohibitions here that require omission of specifics, so I will be specific.
Over the years, I have invested a fair sum of money on products made by a company called Sonos. Fairly ...
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Nasdaq API Usage
I, and others, have discovered that Nasdaq's website is powered by an API which has the endpoint api.nasdaq.com. As far as I can tell, it is fully legal to scrape Nasdaq's website (correct me if I'm ...
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What does this license allow me to do with the products of Google's software?
This video by Google talks about a machine learning algorithm that lets you turn a 2D photo into a 3D model of the person in the photo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57FsWWfxejg
It provides a link ...
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Using another company's name on my website?
I'm building a website with some friends that does social media analytics. As part of this website, there's several places on our site where a website user is prompted to enter some text with the ...
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GDPR Compliance for Application That Guesses Email Addresses
I live in the U.S. and am developing a browser extension that grabs a person's first name, last name, and company name from their LinkedIn profile and then attempts to guess their email address based ...
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Is this copyright infringement?
Location: United States
Given that copyright does not protect ideas
Let's imagine app a and app b.
These two apps are created by two different people.
No patents are involved.
The person that created ...
user45547
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Am I at risk by storing or using software that violates copyright?
Imagine the following scenario:
A software company copies code from some open source project and includes it in their own software without giving credit to the original authors, violating the open ...
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Is it possible to start a business with a partner and have the rigths for the software that i wrote? [closed]
So I have partnered with a guy that had an idea, but cannot write code, that's where I came in the picture.
He worked 7 years in the industry that were are trying to break into and knows the ...
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Is it possible to disallow a usage of a device in a certain way?
I have bought a Timeular bluetooth time tracker device, the only application supporting the tracker is a paid subscription.
I do not want to use that application, I think it's ridiculous that I have ...
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Are there specific laws regarding selling code that executes financial trades?
If I want to start a business selling custom trading code for e.g. stocks/crypto what legal aspects should I be aware of?
Are there general examples of the kinds of contract you might want to absolve ...
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What Are Repercussion For Making Uncensorable Social Media? [duplicate]
I'm intending to make and publish an experimental platform where user-generated content (UGC) is uncensorable and permanent. Although tech promotes itself as such, like the omnipotence paradox, man ...
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Using publicly returned HTML as a part of tests suite
I'm working on a templating engine that takes HTML and a specific C-like language mixed in one file called "template" and produces a native program in said C-like language which then ...
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What parts of cracking (tampering with the copyrighted software) are actually illegal?
I would like to know whether software cracking is considered illegal broadly (in the way that drugs are, for example, broadly illegal in many western countries), or is it a more complex question. I am ...
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Does a non-commercial software project constitute an outside activity and does declaring it to my employer risk any transfer of IP?
Background
I am based in the UK, and about to enter into a new full-time job as a software engineer at a UK-based software company. I have been asked to declare my outside activities.
I have several ...
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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 an abstract idea constitute prior art in a patent case?
I own a patent on a text search and retrieval method. The examiner had cited a nebulous concept as prior art, but my attorney was able to discard that, and the patent was issued. I'm now concerned ...
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Do I need to give credit to the original writer if I rewrote something in my own words?
Situation
Suppose I have built a computer program which fetches articles from websites, rewrites them and posts them.
Since I'm rewriting the article I think copyright law is not violated since ...
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Are there any software licenses that would allow anyone free use but require sponsorship for commercial use?
By "free use", I mean modification, distribution, whatever one would like, but if it is used commercially, then adopting companies would be obligated to support the maintainers.
There is a ...
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Does a website service for image editing need to be ADA compliant for visually impaired users?
I'm getting ready to launch my website for an image editing service. I had come across quite a few articles on how they need to be ADA compliant to offer service in the US without legal troubles. ...
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Can I, as a contractor, take IP with me to a new company?
I am currently working part-time as an independent contractor, software developer, in the United States for a startup my friend founded. I saw it mostly as helping a friend, so we never formalized the ...
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What legal trouble could a software developer blogger find themselves in?
There is a plethora of software engineers who blog about technology. They could be discussing Microsoft technology, Oracle, the list goes on...
Is there a line you could cross where you'd go from ...
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166
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Is it legal to develop a cipher breaker software?
Is it legal to develop a cipher-breaker software/algorithm?
What about it's legality in India?
ByteManager
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Do I need a server license to allow users to generate reports using proprietary fonts from my software?
I'm a developer working on a web based SaaS application that my clients use to generate reports to send to their own customers - my clients get paid to produce these reports.
I have a client that ...
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Is it legal to allow users to upload their own music to an app for baseball walkout songs?
Ballpark DJ and Walkout Song DJ both allow users to upload music from their phone storage to play as walkout music or inning break songs for baseball games. BallparkDJ also allows using Amazon and ...
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Software copyright in a collaboration project for startup development
I am embarking on a possible EU-funded cooperation project to develop a platform, with other organizations. The development of the code will be shared.
I am writing this application with my startup, ...
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Software license conditioned on company size or revenue
A software license might be different if the company where the software is being used is larger or smaller. So if Joey is an independent freelance contractor with his own company with revenue less ...
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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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How does licensing software not imply ownership? Don't I own a Windows operating system once I pay for it?
Background
I've been through the Windows 8.1 EULA and the EULA for computer manufacturers. I've also seen this question where an answer says that Windows is sold as a software service.
The EULA states ...
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Is it illegal to enter a website with an account that is not yours?
I worked as a developer in a company and I had some of the employees' passwords. They are saved in my Google account.
What are the consequences of using these passwords to enter as another person? ...
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A software company refuses to active my perpetual ownership software because they no longer want to maintain the activation server. Is that not theft?
I purchased perpetual license to this software (NitroPDF) and the version I have continues to suit all my needs. I began to have problems when I updated to Win10 as the installation would no longer ...
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Can a software license validly restrict place of use, or impose restrictions on the type or purpose of use
This question is inspired in part by Open Source License restrictions and recent sanctions against Russia and in particular by this answer
Can a software license impose restrictions on the place where ...
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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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Can I viably sue for damages caused by bugs in freeware?
Freeware is software released free of charge. Often times freeware is written by a hobbyist or academic who is looking to create a tool for their field, but is either not interested in profit or ...
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Why do Contributor License Agreements need to be signed explicitly?
It seems like most Customer License Agreements need to be explicitly signed by the contributor. This is a bit of an inconvenience, as contributors need to retrieve the CLA document, have access to ...
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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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Contesting Mojang's forced migration
Mojang is forcing their users to migrate their account with their Microsoft account. Personally, I don't agree with this migration and especially the way they are forcing it on their users: if you don'...
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Intellectual property while employed (UK/USA)
I work for a USA based company but I live and work in the UK.
I'm a software engineer and I was curious about the wording around intellectual property on my contract.
Lets say the company I work for ...
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Is direct advertisement allowed on mobile android app? [closed]
Suppose that an app developer D wants to advertise on a mobile android app. D is aware that that there is the ad network platform admob provided by google, but D does not want to use it.
D wants to ...
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Does a program used to extend an existing program count as achieving interoperability for decompilation?
From the EU 2009/24/EC directive on the legal protection of computer programs, decompilation of programs is allowed under the following term:
The authorisation of the rightholder shall not be ...
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Is an algorithm producing music copyrighted?
It is my understanding that algorithms (not their concrete implementations) are not copyrighted.
Musical scores or productions usually have a copyright.
Some music is constructed from a small set of ...
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Is Simplex noise still patent protected? (What is "anticipated expiration"?)
According to the Wikipedia page on Simplex noise:
Uses of implementations in 3D and higher for textured image synthesis are covered by U.S. Patent 6,867,776, if the algorithm is implemented using the ...
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