I've noticed that some questions here on StackOverflow (example) are answered by quoting either some part of the .net Reference Code or some decompiled parts of the .net base class library (using Reflector). On one hand, the MS Reference Source License does not allow redistribution of the code "outside your company", and I'm pretty s...
Someone created a program that was GNU GPL licensed. Then some other people took that source code and added features to it. They refuse to reveal the source code for the upgraded program. Edit: They are distributing the program from this website: http://pokerbot.proboards.com/ ...
I have a proprietary web application that I host. If I added 3rd party code to it (in the form of a Python module) that is licensed under the GPL3 do I have to licence my app under GPL3 too? My understanding was that under GPL2 you didn't have to release your code if it was SaaS , but under GPL3 you do. Is my understanding correct? ...
Please refer to the answer provided here. Just wanted to understand what are the legal implication if someone really exploited such a security hole to disrupt the system. Will he be legally charged for such act, and what kind of punishment / penalty will be levied. As Cyber laws differ from country to country, please refer to the loca...
Hey everyone, Is there any part of the GNU General Public License that would prevent someone from redistributing an open source project with new code added that is not open source. Such that the open source project except for minor structural changes will be released under GPL, but additional code that will add new functionality to the ...
Is it legal to charge for an iPhone app, lets say .99 cents, for an app that uses Apple's mapkit and a request to google to use their geocoding service? The geocoding is not the main part of the app and it is not advertised to be a geocoding app. Is it ok to do this? Someone mentioned that google has an iphone terms of service, but I c...
Here is what I want to do: Modify an MS-PL licensed library so that it suits my needs Use the compiled form of said library in my closed source program (linked dynamically) Ship the program and the library in binary form Ship the source of the modified library with the program and continue licensing it under MS-PL (if legally necessar...
Hello All, I want to clarify between GPL and LGPL licence. I have taken open source library which is under GPL licence. If i integrate it in my project and i sell in the market then i have to distribute my code to open source community right ? if i don't change any library code then also i have to distribute my code ? what are the othe...
I know this is more of a legal/lawyer question, but I'm sure others have run across this at some point so any insight is helpful. I'm looking to build and sell add on tools for large enterprise applications. The products I want to work with don't have APIs for directly accessing information, but store the majority of their data in a SQ...
I want to know from current Java developers on what/how they feel about the situation. I like Java and was in the process of adding it to my technology stack when I read the news. I understand that this is not a strictly programming related question however it is a pretty clear cut question. Not trying to start any flame wars. Just am tr...
I have a commercial web application and just found a great JavaScript library I'd like to use. This library is licensed under Apache v2. How do I properly (and legally) use the library in my public web application? Since I like to achieve as much performance as possible in my web application, can I do the following: Can I remove the ...
My company just bought Reflector, but our lawyers are saying that we legally cannot use it except for open source code (i.e. cannot use it for most Microsoft and almost all 3rd party code). They claim that because EULA's typically prevent a user from "reverse engineering" the code, that Reflector breaks the EULA by definition. Any expe...
So, after 6 months of hard work finally released my application. Today I found the first web site where people download it cracked, and I was wondering if any of you fellow programmers know how to react to such stuff? Is there anything the software author can do to get the cracked version offline, or I'm just boned and shouldn't create...
hello What would be copyright if the following took place: f2c program.f > program.c where fortran program is automatic converted to C program. in general, what is the copyright of automatically converted programs? I am not looking for legal advice, just curious ...
We're planning on using compiled FFmpeg binaries with our website. We use the conversion in a very minor way. We are not sharing our source code and are NOT including the source code of FFmpeg (or modifying it any way). We do not sell our software, only offer it as a commercial service. Has anyone else used FFmpeg similarly? If so, is t...
I'm writing an application for the iPhone that lets users create 3D models which they can then upload to a website so that other people can rate and comment on them. Should I force the user to accept some type of EULA before allowing them to upload their content? I'm just thinking that I may be in trouble if some day I decide to stop t...
I'm not quite sure if I can post non-programming questions.. But it's certainly related to web dev. I'm looking for good legal resources/content for our company site.. specifically about terms of use, what's "proper" to post in our forums, etc. Stackoverflow has a nice legal page with comprehensive info. I googled variations of legal...
I know this slightly in the legal realm but its unclear who owns the code if you put proprietary code on github or bitbucket in a private repository. From Bitbucket we have: By submitting public (non-private) Content to Avantlumiere for inclusion on your Website, you grant Avantlumiere a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exc...
Hello everyone, I was wondering if under the LGPL(v2.1) one could re-distribute a complete pre-compiled SDK that is linked to dynamically in my own project? Background: Qt is licensed under LGPL and many applications I develop are linking with it. More recently we created our own SDK that uses Qt. Now, other people may extend and write...
How do you go about open sourcing - and then managing - the code developed from within your company? This has happened quite a bit: Google, Google Android, RedHat, Canonical/Ubuntu, Apple, Apple CUPS etc. In my company we've developed some ancillary code to help us make the products that we sell. We're not in the business of developi...