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Questions tagged [copyright]

Software copyright is the extension of copyright law to machine-readable software

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93 votes
5 answers
135k views

Copyright notices/disclaimers in source files

It's a common practice to place copyright notices, various legal disclaimers and sometimes even full license agreements in each source file of an open-source project. Is this really necessary for a (1)...
mojuba's user avatar
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47 votes
3 answers
11k views

Is renewal of MIT license needed on github at the beginning of each year?

I am using the MIT LICENSE in all of my github projects. The second line says 2013 at the top. For having the copyright to hold in future(i.e. after 2013) does it need to be changed each year or is it ...
Aseem Bansal's user avatar
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11 votes
2 answers
5k views

Updating copyright headers each new year just because Jan 1st has passed? [duplicate]

I've seen some projects that - with each new year - start to change all files in their source-tree to update the copyright year. Isn't this just pushing hot air on a level of magnitude? AFAIK: ...
hakre's user avatar
  • 1,155
7 votes
2 answers
2k views

Developer name in the copyright notice of files contributed to open source project?

I am developing a small application which I want to make open source. Currently only my work is on the application, and so in all the files I have put up a copyright notice in my name. Now when I ...
Cool_Coder's user avatar
34 votes
4 answers
12k views

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 ...
selbie's user avatar
  • 643
10 votes
1 answer
1k views

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 ...
user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

What is the smallest snippet of code that can be copyrighted?

Obviously something as simple as int i = 0; or for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) can't be copyrighted, but an entire function could be. Where is the line between copyrightable and uncopyrightable?
FigBug's user avatar
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5 votes
3 answers
615 views

What is the preferred way to protect ownership of one's code (e.g. copyright, licenses, etc)

I posted some open source code on soureforge, and someone got in contact with me stating they intended to use my algorithms for a commercial product. I don't want this to happen, what should I do? ...
farm ostrich's user avatar
41 votes
4 answers
16k views

Can I minify Javascript that requires copyright notice?

I guess this is actually a legal question, but it relates to software. I'm about to include a JS plugin in a project. The comments include: Redistributions of source code must retain the above ...
Nathan Long's user avatar
  • 3,657
18 votes
3 answers
19k views

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 ...
kon psych's user avatar
  • 291
17 votes
2 answers
6k views

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@...
Petah's user avatar
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15 votes
1 answer
14k views

May I include parts of MIT-licensed code inside my closed-source project?

This could be a simple yes/no answer, but I invite detailed explanations. Scenario I have been asked to extend a closed source system at my job, which is not formally released under any license. I ...
Jeff Puckett's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
10k views

Author has inserted copyright into code with gnu public license notice - implications?

I've found a project on Github that I'm interested in contributing to which claims to be open source and has a GPL license included with it. But the original author has added a copyright ...
Nick Pickering's user avatar
13 votes
8 answers
3k views

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 ...
Connell's user avatar
  • 335
9 votes
1 answer
2k views

MIT licence copyright notice for derived works

We're thinking of using some open-source MIT-licensed software in one of our web projects (a jQuery datetime plugin). The first line of the MIT licence is: Copyright (c) [year] [copyright holders]...
SteB's user avatar
  • 738
7 votes
10 answers
895 views

Can I market an application I wrote at work?

I work at a bank and I developed an in-house web application that helps keep track of past due loans and all the interaction between the bank and the customers. I was recently told by an outside ...
Michael Riley - AKA Gunny's user avatar
4 votes
4 answers
974 views

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 ...
Prasham's user avatar
  • 1,059
3 votes
2 answers
639 views

Service to prove authorship with trusted timestamp [closed]

This question is related with copyrights. The copyright is granted by default to the author of some code, however this requires to prove that some person is the "first" author of some piece of code. ...
Trylks's user avatar
  • 782
2 votes
3 answers
3k views

Who owns modifications to open-source software?

Suppose a piece of software is distributed under some permissive license, e.g. BSD. Now, I modify this software and want to distribute my derivative work. My questions: Who is the owner of the ...
nccc's user avatar
  • 139
2 votes
2 answers
2k views

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 ...
Alireza Savand's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
274 views

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 ...
King Chan's user avatar
  • 405
1 vote
4 answers
775 views

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 ...
Rotem's user avatar
  • 1,956
1 vote
4 answers
4k views

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) ...
Adam Badura's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
361 views

Where does one draw the line between inspiration and plagiarism? [closed]

Suppose one would like to use in an iOS app only one function from a GPLv3 library that contains a large number of them. One cannot simply link the whole library beacuse otherwise the resulting ...
Ziofil's user avatar
  • 111