Suppose several companies want to share a set of core libraries, and build their own products on top of them. Also, each company will be updating the core libraries. How would I go about licensing the core libraries? I'm thinking that I'd like something like the MIT license, but rather than having an open source project shared with th...
I'm looking for options to get back a domain name that just expired and was re-registered by an unknown link farmer. Between extended holidays, bank and hosting provider's opening hours and me the domain wasn't renewed and was quickly scooped up elsewhere. How can I get hold of the new registrator (My contact information still appear...
I'm interested in a program that does not exist in my favourite programming language. Though, I want to port it to that language. Am I allowed to port a program, that is published under the GNU GPL, from one programming language to another? Which licensing issues will occur? CLARIFICATION This is not about translating the GUI or out...
The other day, I tweaked a script for a friend's World of Warcraft addon. He was surprised that you could edit the addons—that they were "open source." (Word of Warcraft addons are written in the Lua scripting language) I found myself wanting to say "Sure you can—all scripts are 'open source'." Is that true? Sure, some scripts can be co...
Should I create my own End-User Software License (with a lawyer), or are there some good examples of one on the Internet? I'm getting close to rolling out my first Windows-based program for my side-business. I would like to have the end-users to agree not to: resell the software, change/modify it, use it in another application, etc. An...
This is not a coding question, but I wasn't sure where else to look for an answer. Lets say I have a product selection menu, some of the products are unusual, so I thought it would be great to direct my users to a new blank tab/window that directs to a relevant page on wikipedia. Is that legal? My thought for why it wouldn't be is ...
By searching for ebooks, one can usually find textbooks for free, but what options are they for those who want to do so legally? What about old books that are still in print? I like to have electronic versions of textbooks. It doesn't seem reasonable to manually scan big tomes! ...
I have been asked to build a web application that will be used to store and manipulate sensitive financial data for a private lending firm. Before I bite off more that I can chew, I am trying to figure out if there is anything I should know about legally hosting and securing this kind of information. I have read much about PCI compliance...
I'm generating code dynamically, currently using String.Format and embedding placeholders - but reformatting the C# code for use as a template is a pain, and I think using a T4 template would be better. However, the code generation will be happening on a running system, so I need to know that I can safely and legally redistribute the Mi...
I'm developing a small freeware application which can display text in a special structure. (bible texts, to be specific) Lately I discovered that some users use my application to view texts protected by copyright and some are even providing downloads of such texts. (EDIT: Mostly bible translations which are sold by their copyright hol...
I have received a request of buying the source code of a website I have developed and I wondered if anybody have been in the same situation and if there is anything I should specially be aware of. Anybody got some advise on how I should handle this situation? ...
After reading "Dealbreakers for new programming jobs?" I was thinking about those "I own you"-contracts. To cite Chris Jester-Young: The lack of ability to own code I write on my personal time, on my personal machine, that are not related to anything work-related. I have never seen something like that. I mean we are payed to write...
I worked for a company for 18 months as a full-time consultant developer doing R&D and architecture design and the things I wrote for this company literally runs the company. I'm still good friends with most of the senior development staff but considered the anti-christ by the company owners. My crime, refusing to sign a non-compete ag...
I've been given a copy of a proposed site agreement in which one of the conditions is: ...each of us may for the Term: ...frame the other's site What is meant by "framing"? I assume it might have something to do with an iframe embed or to capture part of our main page without additional logos and other such imagery? ...
Let’s say the Company A released the project under open source license. The Company B includes the work of the Company A into their solution and sells the solution to the Company C. If sometime in the future the Company D announces that the Company A’s implementation infringes their patent. What companies will be involved in the resoluti...
I want to write an application released as GPLv3 (will be written in .NET), and I'm writing it so others can write extensions as DLL libraries. I'm assuming these will also have to be released as GPLv3, and this is as intended. One of the libraries I want the application to ship with on the first release will be a library that interfac...
Hi. I'm not sure if this question is appropriate for SO but I guess other programmers will run into this issue as well from time to time, so here we go. I'm building a site where people can sign up, upload content etc. and I was wondering, I probably need some sort of T&C's and Privacy Policy for a site like this. Since I'm just a poor ...
Over time, any decent developer creates a set of tools that helps them get the job done. Things like Utils classes, build scripts, etc, that aren't really part of any business logic of the company you're working for. Some of these things are trivial, while others may have been developed over years. My question is- what do you do with ...
Let's say I have two applications: one is the "server" application and licensed under GPLv3 and the other is the "client" application and is licensed under a non-GPL compatible license. The server runs as a Windows service, and the client is a normal windows application, and they communicate only via TCP/IP and XML (no linking at all). ...
Imagine I want to create an application which is very similar to MS Word 2007, using C++ in VS2008 and the MFC Feature Pack. For the ribbon, there are 3 options available to me: Use the ribbon from MFC Feature Pack without acquiring a license. Probably dodgy in the long run. You're all right until your product becomes a global success,...