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I'm editing some extensions source codes, to create better or other extentions, some have a license file to tell you what you can do but many do not have, all i can see is a comment saying: all rights reserved by example.com so can i modify these extensions or not?

Lynob
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    Which part of "all rights reserved" is difficult to understand? :) If you replaced "Chrome extensions" with "Chrome", or "OS X", or "the CPU in my computer", would it make any difference? – bzlm Oct 12 '11 at 15:11
  • @bzlm Chrome Extensions are built by third parties and have many different license agreements. There is no explicit "All rights reserved" default for them. – Chuck Le Butt May 20 '15 at 15:03
  • @Chuck, not talking about any defaults, simply referring to the ones that have "a comment saying: all rights reserved by example.com" in them. But I'm guessing there *is* a default set of rights reserved for any reasonably trademarkable intellectual property as well. This is certainly true in the offline world. :) – bzlm May 20 '15 at 19:20

2 Answers2

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Chrome extension source code can be viewed but it can still be under a copyright license. Need to ask the extension owner about the license details.

serg
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    Note that an extension's presence on the Chrome Web Store requires that the developer "grant to the user a non-exclusive, worldwide, and perpetual license to perform, display, and use the Products and any content contained in, accessed by, or transmitted through the Products in connection with Google Chrome." (According to https://developer.chrome.com/webstore/terms) Any license terms beyond that are at the developer's discression. – Ajedi32 Mar 02 '15 at 21:40
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Every Chrome Extension gives the user the following rights by default:

5.2 You grant to the user a non-exclusive, worldwide, and perpetual license to perform, display, and use the Products and any content contained in, accessed by, or transmitted through the Products in connection with Google Chrome. If you choose, you may include a separate end user license agreement (EULA) in your Product that will govern the user’s rights to the Products in lieu of the previous sentence.

Read the whole agreement here: http://developer.chrome.com/webstore/terms

Beyond that you will need to speak to the developer in question. Annoyingly the Google store does not display license terms for each Extension by default.

Chuck Le Butt
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  • Note that this only applies if the extension was distributed through the web store. – EML Aug 24 '23 at 18:22