Questions tagged [licensing]
Questions about the implementation of software licenses on software. If you intend to ask something about free or opensource software, CONSIDER NOT TO ASK HERE. Instead check if **Opensource.SE** (https://opensource.stackexchange.com) would not be more appropriate for your question than this site.
1,329
questions
-2
votes
2answers
73 views
Is extracting strings from an executable considered decompilation?
I am attempting to parse all possible outputs of a proprietary piece of software (ELF binary) whose license explicitly forbids reverse-engineering, decompilation and disassembly.
So my question is: ...
0
votes
1answer
32 views
Concurrent Licensing Implementation
First time poster - apologies if I am missing key information.
I am working on a project composed of two applications which rely on a USB license supporting concurrent licensing (e.g. only 10 users ...
-3
votes
1answer
51 views
SQL Server: Which License? Any alternatives?
I'm working on a project which at the moment is not being used for any commercial purposes, and I'm managing the data by using a SQL Server Database.
I read here that I should pay for it if I ever ...
0
votes
1answer
58 views
What is a good way to make a “software activation code” system?
I have a software product I am going to release soon. It is built with Java/Spring/Tomcat and will be installed on the customer's local network.
I plan to sell this to corporate customers and I want ...
3
votes
0answers
93 views
Windows c++ (piracy): strategies for preventing multiple binaries from being cracked by a single patcher [duplicate]
I am developing a piece of commercial software for Windows, that requires users to obtain a license key in order to use it. It is run locally by clients with the assumption that their machine may not ...
1
vote
1answer
165 views
License control for an on-premise application
TL;DR How do you build an airtight license control system for your onprem application, which revokes access once subscription ends?
Premise
I am building this application in Python that needs to ...
-1
votes
4answers
232 views
How do I prove an app is mine? [closed]
So I am in the process of finishing an app (android for now), and I have a doubt about if I should have papers that proof that I made that app.
Its the first time for me to publish an app, and I am ...
-2
votes
1answer
72 views
Do I include the open source copyright notice in an enterprise software (for commercial use)? [closed]
I have included OpenCV libraries in the enterprise software written in c++. I know that OpenCV is a BSD 3-Clause license, which means most of its libraries are free to use, modified, and redistribute. ...
0
votes
1answer
119 views
How do companies ensure that a commercial license for their Framework is used?
I was wondering how does a Company make sure that a Commercial License was purchased for a Framework they are providing?
For Example Qt is a Framework for C++ and it can be downloaded and used ...
-1
votes
1answer
73 views
How to handle third-party licenses of indirectly used packages [closed]
We develop an application using npm with several third-party packages. Now we want to release our app to the public. That we have to reference the licenses of the packages should be self-evident. But ...
-1
votes
1answer
256 views
What approach should i use to license a local web application with no internet?
I built a .Net web application for a company and it is going to be hosted on their own web-server that don't have access to the internet. the solutions i have thought so far is to get the MAC address ...
0
votes
1answer
113 views
How to manage user serial keys for an application
I have an application in C# where several users access it.
Each user will have a serial key associated with his username in a table users in a local MySQL database.
Example of the table users:
User ...
1
vote
0answers
92 views
What's the best way to control distribution/usage of proprietary, internal software?
I was tasked with writing software for my company. As I am now writing a third program (with many more coming), what's the best way to control the distribution/usage of our software?
The software I'...
1
vote
1answer
887 views
Do I need to make my code open source or buy a license? [closed]
I want to develop a GUI in python for my company in order to sell it to the customer.
Being fresh from the university where I used pyQt, I promptly started programming using that library, just to ...
-2
votes
2answers
81 views
Question about Restricting Features and Licensing [closed]
We have a product that contains features (Let's say feature A, B and C).
We are about to move it to production (a web application) for a certain client.
However, as per my boss, we will deploy the ...
47
votes
1answer
5k views
Altering author names in MIT license [closed]
Some years ago I wrote and released some software under the MIT license.
Recently I noticed that one (or some?) of the forks have altered the leading copyright notice at the top of the license, i.e.
...
2
votes
1answer
146 views
Are there accepted alternatives to having boilerplate (e.g. copyright, OSS, xport ctrl, classification) in the sourcecode itself?
An increasing amount of effort is being put in keeping company code "boilerplate" header up-to-date according to classifications and templates from an external application, leading to "source code ...
0
votes
1answer
208 views
Is a GPL libary for MATLAB considered free software? [closed]
I would say no, because a MATLAB licence is required to run the software, but this point isn't completely clear to me.
EDIT: This was a terminology question, not a request for legal advice.
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votes
1answer
48 views
How to identify an organization for license management purposes for an Windows application?
To introduce some license levels (organization, computer, user), I need to pinpoint information that identifies the object (organization, computer, user) without user interaction.
To identify the ...
1
vote
1answer
270 views
Can i change apache license owner to our company name?
Our previous developer set his name in the license of our open source project.
Thats how license header looks:
Copyright (c) 2018 (his name), Stichting (our company name) <(his email)>
Can we ...
-1
votes
2answers
167 views
If I use .Net Core 2.0 my software must by open software? [closed]
If I use .Net Core 2.0 my software must by 'open software' or what?
Sorry for my English.
-3
votes
1answer
212 views
How to revive an abandoned LGPL project? [closed]
There is an LGPL open source code in SourceForge that is quite useful, but entirely abandoned. I can see that the community struggles with code issues, but the original developer does not respond to ...
3
votes
2answers
156 views
What Software Delivery Guidelines are appropriate when outsourcing?
I started working at a very small company that regularly (not too often) has to outsource some software developments. The external suppliers than have to deliver something.
As I now have seen is that ...
0
votes
1answer
80 views
Logic circuit simulation: homebrew or third party solution?
Software I'm working on requires simulation of logic circuits, both combination and sequential.
Now the simulation doesn't need to be too detailed, in fact it could be detrimental to the function of ...
0
votes
1answer
202 views
AGPL - passwords in code
I'm looking at putting up a fan site for an author using code released under the AGPL. Under the AGPL, as I understand it, I would need to publish my code modifications. This is entirely fine.
...
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votes
1answer
115 views
I want to sell web app and share source code but not to be redistributed. How do I do that?
I want to sell web app to be hosted internally and share source code with that specific client but not to be redistributed(commercially or non-commercially) to outside the office.
They can edit and ...
-1
votes
1answer
51 views
Distribution with CDDL dependency in case of intellij
I have an amateur question with respect to CDDL 1.0 License.
This link provides a list of all the open source software used by intellij idea. The one in relevance now for this ticket is: WADL-core ...
1
vote
0answers
47 views
Can GPLv3+ library be used as a component of a larger, LPGLv3+ library [duplicate]
The question is in the title. My guess is that the answer is "No", but I would appreciate confirmation.
This page mentions as a downside of the Lesser GPL that using it permits use of the library in ...
0
votes
2answers
272 views
To what extent can you use LD_PRELOAD to circumvent the GPL?
I'm not exactly sure what the history behind this, but Debian and Ubuntu currently wraps around some of the PostgreSQL utilities with something called pg_wrapper. This utility uses LD_PRELOAD to ...
1
vote
0answers
59 views
Are squash-merges compatible with the Developer Certificate of Origin?
The Developer Certificate of Origin appears to be widely used in open source at this point, including support at GitHub and use by GitLab community edition.
In accepting a pull request, many folks (...
0
votes
0answers
173 views
Is there a reason to use the Windows registry to store license info, if we aren't concerned with hiding anything?
I've read answers to the following:
Why is Windows registry needed?
However I am curious about how this might apply to the practice of storing software license keys. I've seen developers store ...
13
votes
2answers
475 views
If I am late to commit a software license to a repo, are all previous commits unbound from the license?
Suppose I have a private project with 100 commits. I don't add a software license until the 101st commit. If I make the project open source, does that mean all first 100 commits are unbound by the ...
-1
votes
1answer
86 views
Is modification allowed if license does not mention it? [closed]
I recently came across this license agreement on software:
Personal Use License
The content owner grants the buyer a non-exclusive, perpetual, personal use
license to view, download, display,...
2
votes
1answer
363 views
With source code lost, can the binary be released as MIT without it? [closed]
I preserve old software by asking copyright owners (often one author) to release the source code under an Open Source License, GPL or MIT. In many cases the source is gone, but the binaries still ...
-1
votes
1answer
218 views
How to include BSD licensed component in my project
I want to use a software which is licensed under the BSD, in my project.
I come up with two ways.
I create a directory for this component and copypaste the original LICENSE.txt file in this ...
4
votes
3answers
2k views
Can I include a GPL v3 binary with my proprietary application if I prompt the user to download it at install time?
I have a proprietary application that I want to distribute and sell. The application uses a GPL v3 licensed binary/library.
Since I don't want to distribute the source of my application and also want ...
-3
votes
1answer
176 views
Upload MIT-licensed code to maven repository [closed]
I found some java source code under MIT license on Github, but it is not included in any maven repository. I asked in issue to publish it somewhere, but nobody answered and looks like this repo is not ...
-3
votes
1answer
157 views
copyright. All rights reserved. Can I share this file in github?
I want to add some example projects to my repository. However, I have some files with copyright notice. The disclaimer says owned by Xilinx, use at own risk, don't delete copy right notice.
It ...
8
votes
1answer
316 views
If you manage a BSD-licensed open source project, how do you guard against someone illegally contributing GPL-licensed code?
An open source project licensed under BSD, MIT or another permissive license accepts code contributions from the community.
How can I prevent someone from taking GPL-licensed code that they don't own ...
-5
votes
1answer
140 views
Can I use my own software with a different license from that one used to make it public? [closed]
I ask because I found no answer to this, maybe because is too obvious (I think there is no thing like "legally obvious").
Imagine that I make a small library (DLL) or a styling template (CSS) or ...
3
votes
0answers
51 views
proper presentation of multiple (compatible) licenses that inspired a single source file
I am developing a BSD 3-clause library. In the root of the repository, I have the full license text, and at the top of each file something like
/* This file is part of <project name>, ...
3
votes
2answers
383 views
Are you supposed to fork a repo if you're porting it to another language?
I'm new to forking and open source and I'm porting a Rust library into Swift but I wasn't sure if I needed to fork the original repo and then replace it with my new files or just upload my own repo ...
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votes
1answer
75 views
GNU license and hosting source code
Currently working with a client and their lawyers to launch a web application.
The website will be hosted in AWS on Debian Linux instances.
Debian contains (among others) the GNU General Public ...
-2
votes
1answer
74 views
Licensing of classifier tool trained on open data [closed]
The broad question is: how are the licensing terms for a classifier that is trained with open annotated data (or manually annotated) data?
I am trying to train a dependency parser for German text ...
1
vote
1answer
753 views
Understanding application licenses when using third party libraries in an android project
I'm developing an app for the 2nd time but it's the first time i'm using third party libraries in my application. One of the libraries seems to have an MIT license and the other is the android ...
0
votes
1answer
547 views
Gnuplot in commercial online/offline applications [closed]
Gnuplot seems to be one of the rare applications with the level of perfection in rendering graphics (will be glad to know if any competitor exists to this level).
My question is related to the license ...
1
vote
2answers
137 views
Contributions of a problematic team member to an open source project [closed]
I'm currently coordinating the development of a software for a certain scientific computational task. The developers are all working on the project on a voluntary basis. Our goal is to publish the ...
1
vote
0answers
97 views
Allow Third Party Access to Source Code without right to redistribute or sell [closed]
I am in a situation where a client is asking that I develop a custom software product for them. They've asked that I subcontract under another party that they have worked with before. In reading the ...
-2
votes
2answers
587 views
Can I distribute binaries of my GPLv3 software? [closed]
I have licensed my software under GPLv3 and made it available on Github as an open source repository.
Am I allowed(under GPLv3) to distribute binary releases of the application so it is easier to use ...
-8
votes
1answer
73 views
Work under GPL without license version number [closed]
I understand that I should consult a lawyer for this if this is is an important matter, but since it is not, I am just going to ask here.
What are the legal implications if one distribute their work ...
