Questions tagged [gpl]
GNU General Public License
114
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How do GPL 2, 3 and other copy-left licenses apply in cases of "software as a service" (SaaS) systems?
GPL-style licenses are pretty effective at ensuring the underlying code cannot contribute to proprietary binary programs. But in the contemporary world of SaaS, are there not many ways around this?
...
3
votes
2
answers
177
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Can open source software licenses be enforced in small claims court?
I'd like to distribute a software project under a GPL license.
If someone (apparently) distributes software that includes or links against my GPL project, what claims could I make, and what ...
- 133
2
votes
2
answers
124
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Does incorporation of open-source (GPL-licenced) software by freelancers violate Upwork T&C?
Some widely used open-source software is distributed under restrictive licences: for instance, the R language uses GPL v.2/v.3. This and other copyleft licences impose several obligations, such as the ...
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3
votes
1
answer
128
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Faked GPL license
Lots of software is licensed under the GPL license. It is very well known and well understood. Like most legal documents the license is itself copyrighted, and while the license can be freely copied ...
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2
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114
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Can a company that releases code as GPL, use it privately?
If a company has a Github repo under GPL license, can they, as the owners of the original code, distribute closed-source copies of it, i.e do they have a different right over the code ?
- 39
2
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2
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91
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Firmware code written under GPLv3 was modified. What should be published? [closed]
The firmware for an embedded device (e.g., a toaster) is modified significantly. Algorithms are rewritten from scratch, the code is made compatible with different hardware, etc. The end (hardware) ...
1
vote
1
answer
136
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How does GPL affect a Makefile-only modification?
As a continuation of this question, does a Makefile modification when building GPL source mean my own program becomes GPL also ? For example, if some third-party GPL'd source contains exit(), and I ...
- 141
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1
answer
62
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GPL: distribute compiled binary [closed]
Is it legal to modify GPL v3.0 content and distribute a binary of the remixed content without disclosing the modified source code?
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1
answer
88
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Nokia G10 Android kernel source code availability and GPL request procedure [closed]
I'm thinking about doing a LineageOS port for the Nokia G10. One part of doing the port is getting access to the Android kernel sources. Since the Android kernel is GPL 2, HMD - the company behind the ...
- 107
1
vote
1
answer
86
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Can the permission to implement a specification be restricted?
Let's say I invent a new image file format and release the specification to the public. Is it possible to only allow GPL projects to implement this specification?
Or is this not possible in the U.S.? (...
- 549
0
votes
1
answer
159
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Theft as Distribution of Software
I recently posed a hypothetical to a lawyer who deals with software licensing (His role is to protect a company from accidentally misusing FOSS software) and got a startling response. My hypothetical ...
- 125
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1
answer
132
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Separate license on documentation and code?
I'm currently writing an article for school in literate Haskell, which is basically a file format/syntax that's a LaTeX document but for anything written in \begin{code}...\end{code} is code that ...
- 303
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2
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83
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Can I include EULA-licensed IP core in GPL codebase?
I work on little hardware project in Verilog. It would be published on GitLab and would be available for Open Source community. It is licensed as GPL 3.
I want to include external IP component in my ...
0
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2
answers
680
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Can software with an GPL3-0 license be sold as a product after it has been modified?
I have a project which uses yolov5. I modified the yolov5 and implemented it into my own project (I don't just use the modified version of yolov5 as project. It is just a part of my project.). I read ...
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1
answer
182
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How is the GNU Unifont and other bitmap fonts public domain?
The U.S. doesn't recognize type design as a copyrightable thing, only vectorized fonts, but what does that really mean?
Is a bitmap font made in the United States public domain abroad?
Are only the ...
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0
answers
56
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What license would be correct for an online version of a proprietary board Game?
For a student project we created on online version of "The Game" and now we have to decide which open source license (MIT License, GPL, Apache License, etc.) would be the most suitable for ...
- 101
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122
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Proprietary software using hardware Arduino with firmware GPLv3
Currently, we have developed proprietary (non-open source) software that runs on Windows, MacOS, and Linux using the Qt library (LGPL license). This software is using an external hardware through the ...
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0
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2
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603
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May I use FFmpeg in my program and what do they mean by making the source code available?
I am currently building a video streaming platform for my school.
Because I want to serve videos in different resolutions, I use ffmpeg-static and fluent-ffmpeg. I recently checked the licenses and ...
3
votes
1
answer
469
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Is there a license like AGPL for datasets and machine learning models?
The GNU Affero General Public License is a modified version of the ordinary GNU GPL version 3. It has one added requirement: if you run a modified program on a server and let other users communicate ...
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1
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3
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299
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Does AGPL apply to products created by the software, or just the software?
I'm a 3D modeler by trade, and in the past I've used some software to create a base mesh for humanoid renders. I'm seeing now that, while it used to be AGPL and CC0, it's now entirely AGPL, and by ...
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1
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39
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If a paper under the CC BY-SA 4.0 describes & designs a software X & its implications, does said software must be under a compatible license?
Let's say I wrote a paper which describes & designs a software and its implications, and I license it under the CC BY-SA 4.0. If some else (or me) writes said software, does it need to be in a ...
-2
votes
1
answer
314
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Any licensing issues with an AGPL Docker container used for integration testing? [closed]
Consider a proprietary software service consisting of micro-services that use Amazon S3 for storage. For integration testing I would like to put together a docker-compose file that consists of ...
- 107
2
votes
1
answer
116
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GPL-2 and LGPL sources in youtube video
Suppose that a developer D wants to a make youtube video about a text editor that D has created. D wants to use some real world source code segments as examples, which D will show and edit in the ...
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1
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179
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Enforcing the GPL license on software
I published a software project under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3.0. I have written the code behind it, hence I am the copyright holder.
According to the AGPL license, anyone who ...
- 103
1
vote
1
answer
55
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Using code snippets contributed by you in a library/project with restrictive license
Years ago I contributed some code snippets to a C++ library released with GPL license. Currently I am working on some closed-source commercial project where these snippets could be very helpful.
...
- 111
1
vote
2
answers
312
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MIT and GPL-3.0 conflicting licence
I am creating a project for myself based off of two different GitHub projects. Code from each of the two projects are used in my project, and I am planning on releasing it to the public.
The conflict ...
- 163
16
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1
answer
3k
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How long does a GPL licencee have to respond to a source code request before it becomes a GPL violation?
I have requested source code for a product that contains software licensed under GPL 2. The product includes a written offer to provide source code if you send a written request by email. The offer is ...
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1
vote
1
answer
108
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What are the implications if I include third party logos in the acknowledgements section of my copyrighted book?
I am writing a book on my recent research. I am going to register a copyright for this work and publish the book through a major publishing house (Springer). My editor and I have agreed in our ...
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9
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3
answers
5k
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GPLv3-licensed project on Github seems to try to restrict commercial use
I found an interesting project (tool for numerical simulations) on Github with the following paragraph in its README:
You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
GNU General ...
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89
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GPL-v3 using along with closed source via rest api
I want to use CMS distributed under GPL-v3 licenses. I am building a web application with closed code and my app invokes via REST API backend under GPL-v3. Question: is it legal to use GPL-v3 along ...
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89
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GPLv3 modifications without distribution
I'm curious about the boundaries of GPLv3.
I understand you can't distribute a binary of modified GPLv3-licensed code without releasing the source.
I would assume you can modify GPLv3-licensed code, ...
- 137
2
votes
1
answer
398
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What public evidence suggests that AWS violated the AGPL by deploying MongoDB?
A few years ago (2018), the software package MongoDB, freely available including source code, was relicensed. The original license was the infamous AGPL, which required anybody offering modified ...
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1
answer
152
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Use of gplv2 licensed code in server
Suppose that someone develops a web application, and found a piece of code that they would like to add to their server. But that code is licensed under the GPLv2 license. Does that mean that if they ...
- 13
7
votes
3
answers
895
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Who can publish GPLv4?
I was thinking about the or later part that is often used in licensing
software. When reading https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html, I've found
this:
The Free Software Foundation may publish ...
- 173
28
votes
8
answers
12k
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Do I really have to Open Source my project?
I'm currently working on a software which uses another software under the GPL version 3 license:
https://github.com/ViaVersion/ViaVersion/blob/dev/LICENSE
Now someone just came to me and said I have ...
- 289
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1
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54
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Licensing a code which imports other module
I made a discord bot using discord.py...and want to publish it in GitHub but what license do I publish it in? the discord.py is licensed under MIT and it states that "the distributors include the ...
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0
answers
97
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Propagation of GPLv3 licensed software
"0. Definitions" section of GPLv3 says that:
To “convey” a work means any kind of propagation that enables other parties to make or receive copies.
Is it also included to "any kind of ...
1
vote
1
answer
561
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Does Fat Fritz 2 violate GPL?
Fat Fritz 2 is a chess engine recently published and sold by Chessbase. Release article. It uses the Stockfish binary, and replaces the NNUE in Stockfish with its own. Stockfish itself is licensed ...
- 2,953
2
votes
1
answer
420
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Does AGPL 3 requeired to give free services
I found the following lines about AGPL3 and I am not sure about the correct way to interpret it.
Does AGPL3 oblige me to give my cloud services that connected to the app for free or is it only the ...
- 145
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0
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21
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Selling WordPress themes [duplicate]
I was wondering if I can sell a WordPress theme which is built on top of those themes that comes with WordPress when it's downloaded
or download one for free, then modify it completely(I mean here, ...
-1
votes
1
answer
132
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Can we use GPL3.0 software in our own software?
We're interested in a WordPress plugin available in the WordPress repository licensed with GPL3.0.
We'd like to make some modifications, and then use it for a commercial project.
Is this legal?
- 101
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1
answer
164
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Can I relicense GPL software I make even if there are contributors?
I am about to release an open-source library (it's a derivative, but the original is MIT licensed). I'm considering releasing under GPLv3, especially since my understanding is that as the copyright ...
- 49
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2
answers
65
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Could this interpretation of open source be compatible with GPL 2?
Supposing I made a fork of a project licensed under GPL 2 and made some modifications to it, could I then release source only by request, for only snapshots and not the stable build, without making ...
- 101
1
vote
1
answer
284
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Stolen code in a GPL repo
Quite an odd thing has happened. A software author as released a repo under GPL 3.0 license
But inside that repo is code that the author doesn't own in any way and has no license. Now when people fork ...
- 13
1
vote
2
answers
84
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Ownership of sites and smart contracts
If I am an owner of a site, I can place restrictions on its usage even if the site software is licensed under an open source license such as GPL or AGPL, right? Which law allows me to place such ...
- 257
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2
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236
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I believe [program] violates GPL, do I need to sue the author before using its source code?
Let's say there's a program ("ABC") which is licensed under GPL. There's a similar program ("CAD") on the market, which I believe is a modified ABC. It is therefore in violation of ...
- 2,953
2
votes
2
answers
254
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Do I have to adhere to my own software licences for them to remain enforceable?
I have written a software application and an accompanying software library. When users use this application, they will write code externally to it which also makes use of the software library. The ...
- 121
3
votes
2
answers
310
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Does the acceptance of a software licence constitute a contract? Can such a contract be closed without using said software?
This question revolves around the (unresolved) question in the open source community, whether "dynamic linking" against a GPL-licensed library requires your software to be GPL-licensed, as well. I ...
- 289
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votes
2
answers
3k
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Copyright in copyleft licence?
Is the copyright mentioned in GPL v3 used just for the sake of defining the word? (It's not copyrighted, but the word encompasses the same actions that would violate the copyright if it was ...
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1
answer
69
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Can I get benefits of others' contributions to my GPL licensed software to use these contributions in my proprietary software?
I have my own code of a software, purely coded by me. I am intending to open source it, GPLv3 or Apache 2.0. Then I will add them to Github to let others get benefits of source code and contribute ...
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