All Questions
36
questions
31
votes
3
answers
9k
views
Can an open source licence be revoked if it violates employer's IP?
Suppose a developer's contract says that all intellectual property (IP) rights to her code belong to her UK employer. While employed, she develops a library and open-sources it under the Apache 2.0 ...
- 505
15
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Is WINE illegal?
Is WINE (WINE Is Not an Emulator) illegal?
Given that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has held in Oracle v. Google that APIs are copyrightable, is WINE (which reproduces the Windows ...
111
12
votes
2
answers
2k
views
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 ...
- 221
10
votes
2
answers
486
views
At what point and how should I change the license/Copyright notice when I create a derivative?
If I take a piece of software that is licensed as MIT (quoted at the end), and use it as a scaffold to create for my own thing, do I need to keep including the old license perpetually? This would seem ...
- 201
7
votes
2
answers
411
views
Does using Java or Mono open me up to the possibility of being sued by Oracle or Microsoft?
Given the recent lawsuit between Google and Oracle due to Oracle's claims of the unfair usage of the Java API's in Android.
I have a large amount of Java and C# code for certain back end processes on ...
MrCyber
7
votes
1
answer
2k
views
What is the Copyright Status of code posted on JSFiddle?
Programmers share code on the site JSFiddle http://jsfiddle.net, the website section called Licence states:
All code posted to the site belongs to the poster and no license is enforced.
jsFiddle are ...
- 115
6
votes
1
answer
385
views
In the US, under what circumstances can I re-write code I previously wrote but do not own?
I write code for company X in the USA using popular technology Y. In the course of my job I end up developing a number of useful libraries/widgets/utilities for use within the Y ecosystem that have ...
- 161
4
votes
1
answer
239
views
Can I use my own Open Source code in commercial software I'm writing?
If I release some code that I wrote myself with an Open Source license (a WordPress plugin with the GPL2 license, https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html), can I then use my own code in commercial ...
- 143
4
votes
0
answers
63
views
Copyright law and distribution terms for public versions or derivatives
The present question is a special case of Can one take BSD licensed code and distribute it under GPL?.
Looking recently at OpenBSD's LibreSSL, I've noticed that SSLeay that it traces its roots to (...
- 5,078
3
votes
1
answer
199
views
Are computer generated error messages subject to copyright?
In firefox, it throws up a generated error in response to the website that im creating (which is my work). can i then copy and paste part of that error into my program as part of a solution im writing?...
3
votes
1
answer
123
views
Software licence where no licence is found
Is it correct that I can't take the source code from an educational book and write/use in my website or use it for my own teaching purposes?
Or can such code be considered "generic code" without ...
2
votes
1
answer
94
views
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 ...
- 27.8k
2
votes
1
answer
297
views
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 ...
- 203
2
votes
1
answer
218
views
If commercial use is not mentioned in a software license like BSD, is it implied to freely do so?
BSD talks mostly about redistribution and doesn't even mention commercial use or something like "for any purpose". Therefore they don't need to explicitly state "commercial use is ...
- 31
2
votes
2
answers
176
views
Is a contribution clause necessary in dual-licensed MIT-or-Apache code?
I’ve noticed a lot of dual-licensed MIT-or-Apache Rust projects have added this clause concerning contributions:
### Contribution
Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution ...
- 121