Newest Questions
5,072 questions
-1
votes
0
answers
24
views
Can I use ffmpeg for commercial use only install in my computer [duplicate]
I want to offer a service,
Custom send video to me
I use ffmpeg transform video format in my computer
Send video to my custom.
I don't very understand "Distribute" in license is include &...
- 9
0
votes
0
answers
56
views
looking for a copyleft license that allows myself to `#include` my library in proprietary closed-source applications but not others unless granted [duplicate]
I’m looking for a copyleft license or CLA for a library I’m developing that meets the following requirements:
The library itself remains fully copyleft (e.g., GPLv3).
Only I, the original author, am ...
- 109
12
votes
1
answer
165
views
What does it mean, if a C or C++ header with non-trivial code is LGPL licensed?
LGPL has certain requirements for software that uses LGPL libraries. The most common way to satisfy these in otherwise closed-source software is to supply the LGPL library as a dynamic library, which ...
- 221
7
votes
2
answers
2k
views
MIT licensing inquiry
I'm working on a project that I'm going to use the MIT license for. I'm including code from another project that's not mine also licensed under MIT. I'm getting a tiny bit confused how my license ...
- 71
8
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Can I host and use modified GPL JavaScript on my website while keeping my main app closed source?
I’m building a commercial web application that runs entirely in the browser. I want to use a JavaScript library that is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL v2 or later).
Here’s my plan:
...
- 181
14
votes
3
answers
3k
views
(Why) is AI generated code/work allowed to be released under free/open/libre licenses?
It seems more and more people see no problem with pushing or otherwise releasing LLM-generated code/work as their own. However, it occurs to me, that every free/open/libre licence I can think of ...
- 429
2
votes
1
answer
55
views
What are effective, license-compliant methods to integrate AGPL software into cloud-based research tools?
Suppose a web-based scientific application uses an AGPL-licensed computational backend. What practical strategies allow the frontend to interface with that backend without triggering broader AGPL ...
3
votes
1
answer
101
views
GPL-ed and proprietary JS on the same page: "mere aggregation" or not?
Say an individual builds a personal blogging site using Wordpress, with a contact form plugin that includes some JavaScript on the contact form page. This plugin is available, as a whole, under the ...
9
votes
3
answers
2k
views
License for a programming language
I have created a programming language (an interpreter, a dedicated text-editor, reference manual and documentation, including usage examples), and I would like to publish it. I am interested in the ...
- 117
5
votes
1
answer
71
views
My Own Qt Creator Plugin License(Qt Company GPL Exception 1.0)
I would like to create a plugin for Qt Creator, and I understand the term from Qt Company GPL Exception 1.0(https://github.com/qt-creator/qt-creator/blob/master/LICENSES/LICENSE.GPL3-EXCEPT)
Exception ...
- 63
22
votes
2
answers
5k
views
How do open-source projects prevent “design drift” when hundreds of contributors make small changes?
Over time, even well-managed projects risk losing design consistency as contributors add code in slightly different styles. Beyond code review, what strategies keep large open-source projects ...
2
votes
1
answer
97
views
CC BY-SA 4.0: contribution and distribution clarification
What “distribute” and “contributions” mean exactly for the CC BY-SA 4.0 license?
Let’s take a real example for the sake of illustration: I intend to use the data provided by an online dictionary ...
- 31
0
votes
3
answers
111
views
Am I allowed to sell usage-licenses to software licensed under a open-source-license? [duplicate]
(I can not imagine this was not asked before, maybe I was just too stupid to find it. For this case I am thankful for a hint/link.)
I have read texts that say you can earn money with that in the ...
- 405
8
votes
1
answer
900
views
What license to use when extending a pre-existing library?
I have built a class for extending PHPMailer and wish to release it via composer/packagist.
<?php
/**
* PHPMailerMonkeyZeus - Description.
*
* @author MonkeyZeus
* @copyright 2025 MonkeyZeus
...
- 181
15
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Can I make CC-BY-NC-ND documents searchable?
I know of a website which provides photocopied documents under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
Can I perform OCR on the documents and set up a publicly accessible website where users can search for strings, and ...
- 253
4
votes
1
answer
156
views
What "altered" and "include" stands for in licensing?
Let's suppose I'm creating a piece of software where I use a library, like SDL2 for gaming. After I've finished my work, I want to distribute the binaries of my program on the internet, publish the ...
- 71
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Strategy for promoting a non-US FOSS project in the US?
I want to try to pick this community's brain a bit.
Suppose you're a USer, and a somewhat-active member in some large FOSS project, but that project is actually not that popular in the US: It has a ...
- 449
4
votes
2
answers
351
views
Solving licensing issues made by others by partly breaking my direct dependencies, or not to publish source code at all
There seem to be licensing issues in the dependencies I have used. I am trying to publish some R code, but at least two of the R packages my code uses rely on another R packages with incompatible ...
- 314
4
votes
1
answer
591
views
How can R and its associate software be distributed (incompatible LGPL 2.1 and Apache 2)
R is distributed mainly under the GPL2 or GPL3, but there are also some header files(?) under the LGPL-2.1. The header files go outside my current comprehension.
https://www.r-project.org/Licenses/
...
- 314
5
votes
2
answers
726
views
Is running Ubuntu-based Rocker image as commercial Google Cloud Run service allowed
I have an Ubuntu-based image (rocker/r-ver) I would like to run commercially as a Google Cloud Run service. On my private GitHub repository I have the Dockerfile to build upon the Ubuntu-based base ...
- 314
1
vote
2
answers
160
views
How to run license-compliance analysis for R project, FOSSology does not seem to be suitable
If I want to publish an R project on GitHub (not an R package on CRAN) how in practice I can execute license analysis on the code and select appropriate license for the repository? An automated ...
- 314
7
votes
1
answer
632
views
SPDX: GPL-2.0-or-later vs the `+` operator
Can somebody explain the semantics of SPDX when it comes to GPL licenses?
There is:
GPL-2.0 - deprecated
GPL-2.0-only
GPL-2.0-or-later
I don't understand why "Only GPL 2.0" is not ...
- 173
5
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Does presence of a license in source code strictly apply to that source code?
Many licenses (GPL, BSD, etc) include a stipulation that "redistributions must retain this copyright notice and license" and such. This allows a license to propagate into derivative works.
...
- 289
10
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Can I Stylize the GPLv3 License?
I have a project that I am licensing under the GPL version 3.0. However, the rest of the information documents in my repository have an opening and ending banner image that shows off the project logo. ...
anon
5
votes
1
answer
440
views
Copyright Notice in an Other Place
I am licensing my software and its documentation under the MIT license. I have put the license document under a directory named “Documentation” e.g. and made the documentation document include the ...
user40088
7
votes
1
answer
939
views
Conditions of the MIT License
In the MIT license is:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
Does it mean that each file in the repository of ...
user40088
12
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Hypothetical copyleft exposure developer on proprietary project, legal?
Let's say I have contributed to, or at least learn how to code by reading from, a copyleft project. Or maybe, to be specific, I have been rewriting a C-based GPLv2 code into Rust-based GPLv2 code, ...
- 319
5
votes
3
answers
135
views
LGPLv3 section 5
Does section 5 of LGPLv3 apply to opensource library like mit, bsd based based library as well?
As LGPLv3 says in section 5
Combined Libraries.
You may place library facilities that are a work based ...
- 121
9
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Is discouragement of buying paid copies a violation of open source?
CrDroid is an AOSP custom ROM which claims to be open source, but I found this on their website:
It has come to our notice that certain individual is attempting to
profit from our open source work by ...
- 385
4
votes
1
answer
78
views
Can my Software Use a Library Licensed Under EPL 1.0 with no Source Code Available?
I have built a piece of Java software that uses a library. I extracted this library from another software that's distributed in compiled form under Eclipse Public License 1.0. So, I have the library ...
7
votes
1
answer
476
views
Putting a project's BSD code on GitHub and modifying it
There's a project I'd like to work on and change. It's released under the two-clause BSD license. But the code is only distributed in the zip files you get along with precompiled executables.
I assume ...
- 173
7
votes
4
answers
1k
views
How to release source-code under GPL with exceptions?
I want to release the source code of a profiling/performance analysis library for a platform that doesn't really support dynamic linking.
If the library code is modified or used in a tool/library that ...
4
votes
1
answer
599
views
Licenses: building against a modified library
My code depends on a library licensed under "Apache License v2.0 with LLVM Exceptions". I modify the source code of this dependency before I build my library.
Can I release my code, and the ...
- 141
3
votes
2
answers
132
views
Is CC BY-SA sufficient as a license for a Project logo?
I am the leader of an organization that works on open-source software. I'm slightly unsure of how to license our organization logo, however, and I want our licensing guidelines to be clear. Right now, ...
- 161
2
votes
1
answer
154
views
Can I sue for Copyright Infringement if I contributed some code to the project?
I'm starting to get into writing Free (as in Freedom) software and I want to make sure I do it properly. I prefer to license my work under a copyleft license since I don't want my code to be given to ...
7
votes
2
answers
2k
views
App lists GPLv2 in its list of Open Source Licenses - am I entitled to a copy of the entire app source code?
There's an iOS app I'd like to modify (named "THG Start" and I'm quite sure it is a rebranded version of "HIKMICRO Viewer")
In its Open Source Licenses (in Appendix A), among ...
7
votes
1
answer
890
views
Is this a conflict in the GNU GPL v3, section 7?
I need clarification on what appears to be conflicting language in GPL v3 Section 7 regarding additional permissions.
The apparent conflict:
Section 7 states:
Additional permissions that are ...
- 121
2
votes
1
answer
315
views
How to use LGPLv3 licensed libraries with pyinstaller?
I have a commercial closed-source software compiled with PyInstaller, and I want to use PySide6 to create a basic GUI. However, I noticed that PySide6 is licensed under the LGPLv3. After researching, ...
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3
votes
2
answers
159
views
Is there an existing copyleft licence that prevents SaaSS from denying users a copy of a program's source code used by the SaaSS
This question is about any existing license that has been used to prevent the "Service As A Software Substitute" (SaaSS) bypassing source code provision terms other than trying to create ...
3
votes
1
answer
281
views
Attribution requirements for cloud-hosted software with open-source components
We are integrating a system with a vendor's cloud-based Web application. They do not distribute the source code. We are interested in knowing what open source components they use. If we ask them, can ...
- 335
4
votes
1
answer
242
views
Proper naming scheme for a wrapper library dedicated to a single library?
I am writing a game engine with an abstraction layer that allows different external libraries to be used as backends for graphics, sound, input, physics, etc.
For each of these backends/external ...
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11
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Can GPLv3 be used to protect reverse engineered die shots against usage in closed-source projects?
If you are unaware, there are projects to save old hardware by REing (Reverse Engineering) their custom chips into so-called die shots. Basically, the chip is "delayered", photographed under ...
- 213
1
vote
1
answer
77
views
Can closed-source components be included in the compilation of an MPL-licensed product?
I am developing an open-source simulation game in the same vein as WorldBox but with a greater focus on interactions between the player and individual units, and societal concepts like language and ...
- 121
8
votes
1
answer
709
views
MIT License: Does the claim of copyright extend to derivatives?
The MIT license includes, among other text:
Copyright <YEAR> <COPYRIGHT HOLDER>
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and ...
- 183
8
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Is it difficult for commercial software to comply with Qt's LGPL license terms in practice?
Qt is licensed under either GPL, LGPL or a commercial license that costs to the tune of $5K per developer per year.
One can comply with LGPL by simply linking dynamically or by distributing object ...
- 255
5
votes
1
answer
357
views
Does using a CC-BY-SA image mean you have to license the whole work under CC-BY-SA?
Let's say I want to use some images from Wikimedia Commons which are licensed CC-BY-SA.
I have a few questions about usage, though:
If I use one on my website, will I have to license the whole ...
- 161
0
votes
1
answer
134
views
Bare Minima of Licensing under the GNU GPL and the GNU LGPL
What are the bare minima of licensing a program under the GNU GPL and a library under the GNU LGPL?
user39588
7
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Creating an open-source project licensed with GPLv3
I want to make an open-source project and license it with GPLv3. I have some questions about text I would put in my README and about adding copyright notices. The text is adapted from here.
Is the ...
- 131
-5
votes
1
answer
72
views
Is there a mobile device, markets, that are friendly to open source and independent developers
I'm looking for a mobile device, markets, that are friendly to open source and independent developers. A decade or so ago, I bought a "LIFETIME DEVELOPER ACCOUNT" from google. A few months ...
- 99
3
votes
0
answers
150
views
Trying to remember license where author disowns work
A couple of years ago, I encountered a publicly available piece of software, including source code, where the author emphasized that they disowned their work.
The license had the spirit of the WTFPL ...
- 206