Software Engineering Stack Exchange
Software Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [proprietary]

Definition is taken from the Wikipedia:

Proprietary software or closed source software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering

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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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Are there any notable examples of business disasters directly attrutible to open-source software?

In "enterprise" environments, I've observed a strong prejudice towards proprietary software. Even in large business that use Java, it is unusual to find MySQL or PostgreSQL, and WebSphere and WebLogic are strongly preferred over JBoss or…
Eric Wilson
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Would it be ethical to create an open source alternative to the software you've been hired to create?

Say you were hired to create education software that will be sold to students of a particular academic institution. You are the only developer working on this project and have written all of the code. An open source alternative to the project has…
Ijichi
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What are some ramifications of open source software turning into closed source software?

If a company takes a permissively licensed open source application and then develops a closed source application from that by reworking extensive parts of the application, adding new features and applying bug fixes... Ignoring any license…
Verrier
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Using GPL’d software in a proprietary web application

We are developing website that we charge money from members to join it as membership annual cost, so, we decided to put a plan for the second stage so we are choosing now the load balancer that we will use for our web application. I suggested…
Saaid Samer
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Migration strategies for deprecating in-house scripting language

We have a scripting language that we use internally for many things. It began as a simple evaluation statements for dynamic labels to become a Turing complete language used pervasively throughout our system. Problem is that it was never designed…
Newtopian
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What is the best way to provide open and closed source versions side-by-side safely?

My company is looking to develop and release an open source software project along with a proprietary enhanced version, similar to pre-4.0 VirtualBox. What is the best way to maintain the two code bases such that changes to the open source version…
rkjnsn
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If I try to monetize free software, what could possibly prevent someone from forking that software and creating a proprietary version?

I've only recently begun to learn about the tensions between free and proprietary software, and I've been very confused by the way that free software can make money. I understand that free software is "free as in speech, not as in beer," but if I…
Kvass
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Is it possible for a technically open source application (specifically javascript) to be released under a proprietary license?

A javascript application release won't technically be closed source - at best it can be obfuscated. Given that, my question has two parts: Is it at all possible to release a technically open source application under a proprietary license? Are…
blueberryfields
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GPL - Writing an exception for a plugin interface under section 7 of GPLv3

The problem I've written a application for Android licensed under GPLv3 which needs to use Google Play Services, a proprietary library, as a plugin to the app. Now I'd also like to add libspotify as a plugin. For all of the proprietary libraries…
Centril
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LGPL and commerical application in PHP

I have rather specific question about licensing but first of all I would just like to state that I already read a lot of Q&A's here but I'm still not sure about the problem in that particular scope. As I've understand from other Q&A's, you are…
grongor
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Web Application Licensing - Open Source vs Proprietary

I am developing a web application based on a proprietary (but free) JavaScript API. My company is considering releasing our application as "Open Source", but we are unsure of the different licensing options and how they will work considering we are…
Brian
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Javascript and proprietary algorithms

I'll be quite to the point, is there any way to make Javascript a bit more concealed than it usually is or is Javascript always out and open if you look in the source code ? This is about hiding proprietary algorithms that would dispense a service…
ApplePie
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What's the best way to control distribution/usage of proprietary, internal software?

I was tasked with writing software for my company. As I am now writing a third program (with many more coming), what's the best way to control the distribution/usage of our software? The software I'm writing should only be used on our network and…
kryz
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Best approach to develop / distribute proprietary module

I've been brainstorming for a while regarding the best approach to distribute closed-source modules. I'd like to mention that I have found similar question(s) on SE sites but don't think this is exactly the same scenario. Let's say I wrote a set of…
user123808
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