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Questions tagged [licensing]

THIS TAG IS ONLY FOR PROGRAMMING LICENSING SERVICES. Questions about using software licenses are off-topic, but may be asked at opensource.stackexchange.com or law.stackexchange.com

A license defines the terms under which the copyright owner permits others to use their work.

On-topic

  • programming licensing servers
  • programming licensing clients
  • implementing consumption of license keys

Off-topic

  • Any licensing question where you did not write the licensing system. In other words, using licenses for other company's software (i.e. a Microsoft Windows license)

  • Legal advice on usage of licenses. You may be able to get an answer to such questions at OpenSource.SE (for questions about open-source licenses) or Law.SE; but check their help pages for more detailed guidance about acceptable topics and what to include in your question when posting there.

Disclaimer

The answers are NO legal advice and there's NO warranty! For a legally valid advice consult a lawyer or another legal advice.

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28 answers

How do I protect Python code from being read by users?

I am developing a piece of software in Python that will be distributed to my employer's customers. My employer wants to limit the usage of the software with a time-restricted license file. If we distribute the .py files or even .pyc files it will be…
Jordfräs
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5 answers

How to add license to an existing GitHub project

When I created a GitHub project I chose None. How can I now add a GPL license to my already added project?
King
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211
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3 answers

What are the differences between GPL v2 and GPL v3 licenses?

In simple terms, what are the reasons for, and what are the differences between the GPL v2 and GPL v3 open source licenses? Explanations and references to legal terms and further descriptions would be appreciated.
Nick
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211
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4 answers

"All Rights Reserved" license in package.json

I have a small node.js project that is company-internal and will not be released publicly or shared with third parties. It certainly will not be contributed to any public package repositories. But when I run npm install I always get the following…
wberry
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174
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1 answer

How to change the license for a project at Github?

I have created a simple list API in C and I want to release it via Github. Is there any way to change the license after the creation of the repository?
Chris
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124
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33 answers

Can't accept license agreement Android SDK Platform 24

I'm getting the following error when trying to install an android platform on a Cordova project. I've been following this guide: https://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/latest/guide/cli/ Error occurs when executing the following: $ cordova platform add…
Daneye
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122
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4 answers

MIT vs GPL license

The MIT license is GPL-compatible. Is the GPL license MIT-compatible? i.e. I can include MIT-licensed code in a GPL-licensed product, but can I include GPL-licensed code in a MIT-licensed product? It seems to me that the chief difference between the…
fruzer
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119
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6 answers

GPL and LGPL open source licensing restrictions

I am having trouble understanding the usage permissions of open source. I read somewhere that GPL or LGPL enforces that software that uses GPL software must also be released open-source. I want to create an application that uses some open-source…
rsinha
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111
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2 answers

Difference between Affero-GPL and GPLv3

What is the difference between the Affero General Public License and the GNU General Public License (GPL)?
thr
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108
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10 answers

Putting license in each code file?

I find it unnecessarily duplicated to have it in each code file, but I see it on most open source projects. Should I do that same, or just include a single license outside the code?
Joan Venge
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22 answers

How do you protect your software from illegal distribution?

I am curious about how do you protect your software against cracking, hacking etc. Do you employ some kind of serial number check? Hardware keys? Do you use any third-party solutions? How do you go about solving licensing issues? (e.g. managing…
petr k.
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88
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1 answer

Can I use Qt LGPL license and sell my application without any kind of restrictions?

I want to start a cross-platform project. I had my researches and now I am almost certain Qt is the right deal. There is a big obstacle here though: licensing. I want to sell my project and I also don't want to give out any source related to my work…
Hossein
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15 answers

What should every developer know about legal matters?

Today I had a bad surprise learning about some implications of the GPL license, mainly that I couldn't use it as freely as I thought. Now I know. What else should I know, and more widely, what should every developer know about legal things like…
marcgg
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2 answers

Is there a chart of which OSS License is compatible with which?

I have a fairly good understanding of individual OSS licenses, but I always have trouble when I want to use code under different licenses. BSD vs. Ms-PL, Apache 2 vs. GPLv3 etc. Is there some sort of "mating chart" that lists which licenses are…
Michael Stum
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66
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10 answers

Which open source licenses are compatible with the Apple's iPhone and its official App Store ?

I'm writing an iPhone app, and I would like to use a 3rd party library for part of its functionality. I intend on selling it through the App Store and my code will not be open sourced. Which open source licenses allow to make derivate works and…
Corey
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