61
votes
Accepted
Can you host a version of Wikipedia on your own domain and charge for it?
It's allowed by the Creative Commons Attribution -ShareAlike license, and intentionally so. The Wikimedia Foundation wants things like this to be possible; that is part of the goal of open content. (...
- 13.8k
59
votes
Why do some licenses have a clause stating that one can't violate the law?
Because breaking the law is not breach of contract
(Necessarily).
Were you to use the model to 3D-print a gun and rob banks with it, without this clause, you have not broken the contract. That would ...
- 198k
53
votes
Accepted
Is it legal to write a software license if I'm not a licensed attorney?
As Greendrake says, you can legally create your "open source" license. There are two problems with this:
Since you are not an experienced contract lawyer, there is a significant risk that ...
- 32.9k
52
votes
Can you host a version of Wikipedia on your own domain and charge for it?
"they end up ranking higher than Wikipedia itself on Google". That's a highly unlikely scenario, unless you could somehow convince all current users of Wikipedia that switching to a paid ...
- 4,815
48
votes
Accepted
GPLv3-licensed project on Github seems to try to restrict commercial use
The second paragraph is an invitation for people who don't want to follow the terms of the GPL (e.g. who want to incorporate it into a larger closed-source work, or make closed-source modifications) ...
- 1,767
47
votes
Can a user sell my software (MIT license) without modification?
Yes. The license itself is really just one sentence long, and states explicitly that this is allowed.
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software ...
- 29k
45
votes
Do I really have to Open Source my project?
You need to know two things about the GPL:
The GPL is a license which requires that when you distribute binaries, you distribute the source code with them (binaries being the things you can directly ...
- 575
40
votes
Accepted
Can an open source licence be revoked if it violates employer's IP?
The Apache 2.0 license purports to be irrevocable, but it also presupposes that the supposed licensor has the right to grant permission to copy. In this case, that is untrue, so there never was a ...
- 210k
32
votes
Can the Cyber Resilience Act make it illegal to retire?
An obvious workaround for individuals would be to operate through a front company and then simply dissolve that front upon retirement.
Provided it is the front which offers the product to market and ...
- 2,472
28
votes
Do I really have to Open Source my project?
It depends on exactly how you are "using" the GPL code.
If you have copied and modified the source code then you can only distribute copies under the GPL.
If you have invoked a GPL program ...
- 13k
27
votes
Is it legal to write a software license if I'm not a licensed attorney?
Is it legal to write a software license if I'm not a licensed attorney?
Yes.
creating a contract is considered practicing law.
Is that true?
Yes and no.
You don't even need to know what the word &...
- 25.6k
23
votes
Copyright in copyleft licence?
No. GPL works are copyrighted (as are most creative works basically everywhere in the world, as soon as they're created, whether or not the author does anything about it), and copyright is what gives ...
- 701
23
votes
How do trademarks apply to Open Source?
Being or not being open source makes fairly little difference in trademark law.
If a commercial firm (Yoyodyne, say) had used the name "Portable Network Graphics" and the abbreviation "...
- 113k
23
votes
Can the Cyber Resilience Act make it illegal to retire?
The essence of this question is whether Alice, a natural person, is exempt from the EU rules for "economic operators". The EU definition of "economic operator" in the CRA ...
- 5,508
22
votes
Accepted
Is it legal for me to provide a download of an unchanged fork of an application that is on GitHub?
There seems to be no controversy about whether you are allowed to make a copy of a publicly accessible GitHub repository by forking it. As they agreed by accepting the GitHub terms of service and ...
- 605
21
votes
Accepted
Is a copyright notice with a non-existent name invalid?
Since the effective date of the US 1976 Copyright act, a copyright notice is not required at all on works published in the US, nor is it required on works published in any other country that adheres ...
- 113k
21
votes
Is it legal for me to provide a download of an unchanged fork of an application that is on GitHub?
When you don't specify a licence, the author retains almost all of their rights:
You're under no obligation to choose a license. However, without a
license, the default copyright laws apply, meaning ...
- 2,336
20
votes
Do copyright notices need to be placed at the beginning of a file?
Under the Berne Convention, a copyright notice is not required at all, although using one is good practice. Using one usually eliminates the claimed status of "innocent infringement", which, if found ...
- 113k
19
votes
Would open source programs that use encryption be illegal under this draft of the "Compliance with Court Orders Act of 2016"
Section 4, Definition 4 Covered Entity, emphasis added:
The term "covered entity" means a device manufacturer, a software manufacturer, an electronic communication service, a remote computing ...
- 4,798
19
votes
Copyright in copyleft licence?
GPL does not purport that there is no copyright in a work to which the license applies: the works are still in copyright. It relies on the notion of copyright (which it redefines to include "similar ...
- 210k
16
votes
How long does a GPL licencee have to respond to a source code request before it becomes a GPL violation?
The GPL does not explicitly specify a time within which the source code must be provided, which probably means a "reasonable time" is allowed. What is "reasonable" would eventually ...
- 113k
16
votes
Accepted
What is a binary form in software BSD license (and other licenses that didn't define it)?
Ultimately, these terms would have to be interpreted by a court in order to get clarity. But the phrasing “source or binary form” should likely be understood as “not just source form, but any form of ...
- 23.9k
16
votes
Can you host a version of Wikipedia on your own domain and charge for it?
Wikipedia does not make any attempt to stop people creating and placing online copies of Wikipedia, or parts of it. Indeed it encourages people to do so. Not only does the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license ...
- 113k
15
votes
Can an open source licence be revoked if it violates employer's IP?
The License is not valid in the first place, as the developer did not have the right to attach the license to his work; the company does.
If someone uses the developer's work, and the company sues ...
- 6,131
13
votes
Accepted
Can I bundle MIT licensed components in a Apache 2.0 licensed project?
I realize there's already an answer, but I'd like to go into more detail.
There are generally two kinds of open source software licenses: permissive and copyleft (the latter sometimes called viral).
...
- 421
12
votes
Accepted
Trade restrictions on open source software
Publishing source code is protected under the First Amendment. Therefore the US government cannot stop anyone from publishing open source software, and once it is available from a web site it is ...
- 13k
12
votes
Are Word-Frequency lists copyrightable?
The underlying text(s) may be subject to copyright protection, but the individual words are not -- they are usually independently existing words of the language (there are invented words like "...
- 210k
12
votes
Do I really have to Open Source my project?
What you have been told is incorrect. You are in no way required to release your product under an open source license, nor to publish it in any form. If you do "convey" a work that is under ...
- 113k
12
votes
Accepted
Who can publish GPLv4?
In practice, it is abundantly clear to which entity the “Free Software Foundation” refers, even if the FSF were to change its name, even if there are unaffiliated organizations with the same name.
...
- 23.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible