Questions tagged [copyright]
Software copyright is the extension of copyright law to machine-readable software
179 questions
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Open source licenses (specifically GPL) & gamemaker's source format
Now with gamemaker studio source files are no longer stored in a proprietary format - instead they are stored as simple XML files containing all data. Now I am wondering, can projects created with ...
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Can I use MIT license to give some of my previous written code to employer so that I protect myself and don't lose my copyright?
My situation:
I have written a framework before I started my new job. I own the copyright.
It has a bunch of boilerplate logic inside of it, like any piece of software. (duh!)
I don't want to use the ...
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Is there a license for selling a software with the sources so buyer can make modifications without claiming ownership of the code or distributing it?
I would like to sell a software that has some open source competitors. Therefore I would like to include the source code with the binaries so that the company buying it can modify it as it wishes. The ...
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I have a previous invention (software / framework) that I plan to use on my new job. What happens to my copyright if I improve it during the job?
I have filled that standard form where you list your previous inventions before starting your new job so the employer is legally aware you have the copyright over them. But if I want to use this ...
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Copyright notice in CSS or XML files
I'm currently working on an open-source project. Currently, we put our copyright notice at the top of every Java source file.
I was wondering whether it was advisable or common practice to put ...
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Copying (forking) an open source project to your own repository
I'm currently using an open source project called CodeFirstMembership for one of my projects. There's a critical issue that I need to get past, and the more I use it, the more I find things I need to ...
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is it okay to remove copyright info from a free, open source API even if you are explicitly told not to do so? [closed]
Just wondering if text such as the following, which appears inside the source files of a free, open source API, means anything in a court of law
// Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, ...
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What if I forgot to include someone elses copyright info in old commit?
Assume I have a public source code repository. Am I violating copyright laws if there's any old commit where I have not yet added all copyright info for other people's open source code?
Details: ...
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How do I properly credit authors of software released under the MIT license?
I have modified the source code of an MIT licensed project, and I have added new classes to it as well. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think that it is legal to add my copyright notice above ...
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Can I distribute a software with the following permission notice
I've recently written a piece of software (without any other contributors) for a company which I part own. I was wondering if I could distribute it with the following permission notice, which is a ...
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Publish a software with copyright and license
I just read some artical about publishing software and I am personally developing some random metero application at the moment.
The artical were suggesting the software should have a publisher ...
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Can graphics in the public domain be used in commercial software?
For example: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Epithalamus.png
Could I take an image file like that, splice it apart, and use it in an application that would be sold?
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Licensing a project
Can someone clarify the following things for me ?
Let's say I want to build a website and add publicity to it so I can make money out of my work.
I would use Html5 for the interface and C# with ASP....
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How to copyright and license individual code files
I have a habit of writing small, reusable components in my spare time. I reuse these components with my clients' code bases. It occurs to me there's a potential issue that using identical code for ...
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Does custom created code for a client imply copyright ownership? [closed]
I know of a potential customer that has been paying for website development work on an hourly basis for several years by several independent contractors, but has never signed an agreement as to terms ...
user39741
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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 ...
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What is the significance of each paragraph of the GPL "copying permission statement"?
Part of the FSF's instructions for placing a program under the GPL is including the following "copying permission statement" at the top of your file, under the copyright notice:
This program is free ...
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Placing of copyright notice in source code
I'm about to release a project of mine that I'm really proud of under the GNU GPL and I have some questions:
Should one attach a copyright notice on each and every source code file from their project?...
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Copyrighting software, templates, etc. under real name or screen name?
My question is hopefully simple - should I copyright my work (art, software, web design, etc.) under my real name or my screen name? My real name and screen name are also easily connected with a bit ...
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Is making my own copyright licence safe?
I've seen various open source libraries (actually I've seen it for assets as well) having a home-baked license in the following manner :
SomeGuy's License:1. You can use this code freely in ...
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Is it legal to use icons from some other application while developing?
On my machine while developing I'm using icons from other application (in particular MS Paint and Paint.NET) as sign for the user that if he chooses to open that file (with our own internal command) ...
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Can I legally use the icon of a different software? [closed]
Suppose I am including a feature in my image-viewing software, which opens an image in Photoshop ('Send to Photoshop'), using Photoshop's OLE automation framework.
Am I allowed to use the icon of ...
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Open source code with no license... can I fork it?
Years ago somebody created a bunch of really awesome and popular scripts. But they were not updated for a long, now they no-longer work (target platform were updated, and some changes are needed).
He ...
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Would this violate any copyright issues? [closed]
I am currently publishing a paper on skin detection. However, I need to find the appropriate histogram bin size for each colorspace. I recently came upon a paper that published what it found to be the ...
user44612
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Do I have to remove my app from app store? (Copyright infringement) [closed]
I just got an copyright infringement notice that says my app infringes on the usage policies of the services my app uses.
However, this mail does not come directly from the company that runs the ...
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Copyrights concerning code snippets and larger amounts of code [closed]
I am designing a public code repository. Users will be allowed to post and edit whatever amount of code they want, from code snippets to entire multi-file projects. I have a few major legal concerns ...
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What kind of copyright laws should I be aware of when creating software? [closed]
I'm trying to build a winform so I can play a web based game and have some other little utilities on the side. I do not plan on ever selling this or even distributing it to more than a handful of ...
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How to get contributors assign copyright for copyright holder?
Let's say we have a company and we release our project under LGPL && GPLv3, as you know the only thing here is about contribution. People commit bug-fixes/features to the project, it's fine ...
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What copyright date for an update to an open-source project from last year?
In 2011, I released some open-source code that was licensed using the Apache license. As such, all the source files have this boiler plate message at the top:
/*
Copyright 2011 My Name
...
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Automatically update copyright date range from git?
As I write, we're 10 days into 2012. I bet many programmers are editing the copyright string at the top of their source files to something like:
// Copyright 2008, 2010-2012 Some Company Unlimited
...
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Copyright Laws for Apps
For my app that I'm about to release, I have used a bunch of 3rd party classes found for free online. I checked all the liscenses before using the code and each one said I could use the code ...
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Do I need to get permission to access a site's data or functionality programmatically? [duplicate]
I'm creating an application which will programmatically sent HTTP GET and POST requests to a site and processing the data received.
If I want to release that application, do I have to get permission ...
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Copyright statements in source code [closed]
Ever since I started programming I've seen a header at the top of most code files indicating some sort of copyright: e.g.
/* Copyright (c) 1998 Innotech */
or
/* Copyright (c) 1998-2008 Innotech */...
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How should I license code written for a startup without a contract?
I wrote a fair amount of code for a startup, but I haven't signed a contract before doing so.
The only document that I signed with them does not mention the fact that I have to pass the rights on the ...
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Is there a way to prevent others to steal your open source project and use it to make a profit?
This might seems like a silly question to ask, but I can't really figure out the answer. The title pretty much says it all.
Let's say you have an open source music player, along comes someone, copies ...
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How do I display copyright correctly when using components with multiple permissive licenses?
I am writing a commercial application that will make use of some open libraries licensed under different licenses.
For example one library will be licensed under the Apache 2.0 license, another will ...
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Does it make sense to license unit tests?
I am wondering if there are any benefits / risks of (not) putting a licence on test code which mostly consists of unit tests. What do you think?
I am particularly interested in licensing under (L)GPL,...
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MIT and copyright
I am contributing to a library that is licensed under the MIT license.
In the license and in each class file it has a comment at the top saying:
Copyright (c) 2011 Joe Bloggs <joe.bloggs@...
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How do I dual license?
I'd like to open source a project of mine under GPL v3. Additionally, I'd like to sell a license for those who wish to use the code in a proprietary application.
How do I go about releasing my ...
Andrew
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Is it worth registering software with the U.S. Copyright Office?
nolo.com says: "If you want to stop someone from using or otherwise infringing on your work, you must sue the infringer in federal court. However, in order to do so, you must first have registered the ...
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If attribution is done via a pseudonym, who owns the rights to the code? [closed]
I'm aware of a few cases where coders used a pseudonym for attribution instead of their real names.
Examples include:
Satoshi Nakamoto (Bitcoin)
Why (Ruby)
One thing I've wondered is if attribution ...
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Are interfaces and method signatures copyright protected?
For example, is it copyright infringement if I write a class called Random with the exact same purpose and method signatures as Microsoft's .Net System.Random class? Does it make a difference what ...
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What kinds of copyright or privacy issues apply to tweets? [closed]
If I want to use the data on Twitter in my application, what are the restrictions? What user data should I avoid touching?
For example, if I want to collect information from certain type of tweets ...
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"Do Whatever You Want" License With Attribution
I'm looking for an open source license that lets people do whatever they want - just like the MIT license - just as long as they attribute the original author, i.e. me.
Does a common license exist ...
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Copyleft Licenses - Need to attribute?
I'm currently evaluating which license to use for my next OS project, and things are getting more and more interesting after I decided that I really want to understand what the licenses mean.
Up ...
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Get code from one open source project and add it to another
I found some functions that I want to get from WordPress source code and add want to add them into my project which is going to be open source.
Do I simply get the functions that I want and add them ...
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Inserting copyright notice [closed]
What is the easiest way to insert copyright notice in lots of PHP files.
It's not possible to do it manually.
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Do you tend to write your own name or your company name in your code?
I've been working on various projects at home and at work, and over the years I've developed two main APIs that I use in almost all AJAX based websites. I've compiled both of these into DLLs and ...
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Do I own copyright of program I made in own time? [closed]
I created a software package that aids electrical engineers with common calculations used on site (substations to be specific). I created the package in my own time, without being asked and without ...
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Code Plagiarism: How hard or how easy to detect this?
Suppose you want to develop an application, in midst of development you find out that one similar application already exists, highly recognized and used. It's a cross platform application but it's ...
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