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Questions tagged [licensing]

Questions about the implementation of software licenses on software. General questions about open source software licenses should be asked at opensource.stackexchange.com instead. Legal questions about software licenses should be asked at law.stackexchange.com instead.

Licensing questions on Software Engineering are limited to general use-cases of software licenses: any specific questions about the legal enforcement of licenses (like, for example, suing people) is off-topic: consult a lawyer instead.

For questions about open source licenses, opensource.stackexchange.com is often the better place to ask, since their community has specific experts for this topic.

See the licensing faq for more information about whether your question is on topic.

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Can I use GPL software in a commercial application

I have 3 questions about the GPL here: If I use GPL software in my application, but don't modify or distribute it, do I have to release my application under the GPL? What if I modify some software that my application uses. Then do I have to release…
Petah
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2 answers

AGPL - what you can do and what you can't

AGPL is a fairly new license that was meant to go GPL-over-networks. However, not being a lawyer, and actually not having read the whole license, I can't understand what exactly you can do freely and what not with AGPL. My uncertainty is fed by this…
Bozho
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2 answers

Best existing license for closed-source code

I'm creating a few closed-source applications on my own (no big company behind me) and am wondering exactly how to protect them. At the top of all the source code files I have this pretty basic copyright…
TheLQ
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3 answers

Meaning of MIT license

Suppose I use this ActionScript API released under MIT license to build a software: http://www.cove.org/ape/docs/api/ Can I sell that software? Do I need to give the source code of my software away? Is anyone receiving my software permitted to…
simplfuzz
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2 answers

Which SPDX license is equivalent to 'All Rights Reserved'?

I've got a package.json that's expecting a SPDX-approved license acronym, but I can't find one that means 'proprietary commercial license, all rights reserved'. Is there one for non-FOSS, where I want to specify that I want to allow no reuse?
Bryce
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154
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8 answers

Do you have to include a license notice with every source file?

I've been looking for various licenses that I can use for an open-source project of mine, but all of the projects that I've seen, with all kinds of licenses, appear to have a giant, obnoxious (in my opinion) notice in each source file that states…
RétroX
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What are the real life implications for an Apache 2 license?

I want to use SVG Edit for a project. This software is distributed under the Apache 2 license. I've seen that: all copies, modified or unmodified, are accompanied by a copy of the licence all modifications are clearly marked as being the work of…
methodofaction
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Is it possible to rewrite every line of an open source project in a slightly different way, and use it in a closed source project?

There is some code which is GPL or LGPL that I am considering using for an iPhone project. If I took that code (JavaScript) and rewrote it in a different language for use on the iPhone would that be a legal issue? In theory the process that has…
Chris Barry
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128
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4 answers

Can I use MIT licence plugins in my commercial web site?

If yes, what precautions should I take?
Harry Joy
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125
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5 answers

How to manage a copyright notice in an open source project?

I'm working on, and adding to, a GitHub-hosted project that includes this LICENCE.md (apparently the MIT licence verbatim): Copyright (c) 2012 [Acme Corp] Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software…
Steve Bennett
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119
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What is wrong with the Unlicense?

I have often heard that I should not use the Unlicense because of issues regarding putting things into the public domain. However, I do not understand why this would be an issue for the Unlicense. The Unlicense attempts to put whatever is being…
cgt
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MIT vs. BSD vs. Dual License

My understanding is that: MIT-licensed projects can be used/redistributed in BSD-licensed projects. BSD-licensed projects can be used/redistributed in MIT-licensed projects. The MIT and the BSD 2-clause licenses are essentially identical. BSD…
ryanve
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7 answers

Ship of Theseus applied to GPL - Can I relicense my program if I replace all of the derivative parts?

I translated a GPLv2 C program to Python, but found it was hard to extend as designed and rewrote significant portions of it. The program is now structurally completely different, but there are several verbatim translated functions in use. The Ship…
Landon
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96
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3 answers

What does "GPL with classpath exception" mean in practice?

Oracle seems to license all their Java-related open source code under the GPL with a classpath exception. From what I understand, this seems to allow to combine these libraries with your own code into products that do not have to be covered by the…
Thilo
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What is the best practice for arranging third-party library licenses "paperwork"?

I am developing a small open source project. The application uses many third-party libraries released with a range of licenses: Apache, MIT, BSD, LGPL and CDDL. Each of these licenses has its own “paperwork” requirements. For example, the Apache…
Alexey
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