licensing

Commercial OS based on Linux, legal issues.

Based on some Linux distributions can do commercial OS? Can I distribute such a system without source code? ...

workflow for a license server / selling software

I have a product I'm selling. Users purchase a license key and enter that into the config to enable the product. My first idea was.. The product pings the license server w/ the license key on launch, and fails if the server returns a Not Authorized (expired license, invalid etc). But what if the license server is down..? Another ide...

Things to consider w/microsoft technologies?

I'm in the process of planning out a public facing web application. I've not decided on what platform / tools I will use just yet but it's between asp.net or one of the lamp flavors. My question is are there any licensing or otherwise issues that I should consider if I choose asp.net for a public facing for profit web application? Th...

iPhone game copyright and licensing

Do iPhone games which replicate the exact functionality and rules of popular proprietary board games need special permission (copyright, trademark, etc) from the relevant companies (Mattel, Hasbro, Parker Brother, etc) before being submitted into the App Store for approval? ...

How to (or Can I) use Google Maps in a Desktop application

Hi. I researched this, read the TOS and only got more confused. I want to develop a desktop application (Java or Objective-C) using maps. What I'll actually need from the maps is to visually set a starting point, and an end point and get the distance in km. How can I do this (API or interface), and am I allowed to use Google Maps API in ...

What is the right way to attribute original copyright when modifying code under GPLv2 license?

I'm creating a new project based on a previous Perl script that is covered by GPLv2. What is the "correct" way to provide proper attribution to original author? For the life of me I can't find this anywhere, even on the GPL site. ...

2 Developer Licences -1 iPhone

Hello, can i develop with 1 iPhone on two developer Licences,... best regards, Andreas ...

license header for classes extended from Hibernate

I would like to extend a class (e.g. org.hibernate.type.CharBooleanType) which is shipped as part of the Hibernate core distribution package. Our product is meant for commercial use, are we supposed to retain the original license header in the extended class or can we use the company specific propreitory license header on top of the ext...

including open source software in commercial software

Hi, I'm developing a commercial application and would like to include ffmpeg to extract thumbnails from videos. ffmpeg is licenced under LGPL 2.1. I would like to know how I can include ffmpeg in my software installer while meeting the requirements of LGPL 2.1. If it makes any difference I haven't modified the ffmpeg exe in any way. ...

Do I need a banking license for this paypal-based ecommerce app?

The application will accept payments from users with paypal's Payments Standard. All of this money will be stored temporarily in the company's paypal account, and then redirected to some of the users involved in the transaction via their paypal accounts (we'd also keep a cut of this money). Would this implementation require a banking lic...

Using GPL licensed jquery plugins

I'm sorry for the naive question, but I'm a bit clueless about free-software licensing. Is there any problem with using GPL-licensed front-end software (jquery + plugins, for example) on a for-profit subscription-based web application that has a closed-source back-end, so long as you keep your changes to the plugins open? Would such a...

Why is there so much legal paranoia surrounding Boost?

It seems from reading SO that there's a lot of legal concern about Boost in some companies. Some people are apparently prohibited from using it. Since Boost is licensed under about the most permissive license you could possibly think of, where does this concern stem from. Edit: People have asked for specific posts. I don't remember ...

How to license a project

I have written a project for my students organization. I would like to share it between many organizations and I want them to use it for free. So I thought that releasing the project on GPL licence (or other silimar). However I don't want that somebody use this project for commercial purpose for free. How should I license this project? I...

ANTLR grammar license

I'm planning to make an implementation of Lua for the DLR, and i would like to use the listed Lua 5.1 grammar here. However i can't see a license that it was released under, so can someone please kindly point me in the direction of the license it uses? ...

Open Source Licenses: LGPL vs. Creative Commons

I'm writing a .NET library for the Stack Overflow pre-alpha API. After uploading some early code to a new project over at Google Code, I set the license info to GPL and added the appropriate license disclaimers to the code files. After posting an announcement on Meta, though, Kevin Montrose told me that LGPL is better. I have also looked...

Question regarding product activation scheme

The typical product activation scheme is as follows A unique serial no. is assigned to user A unique hardware id is generated for the user's machine. On giving this info to the vendor, the vendor issues an activation code. I would like to know how the activation code is generated and what are its contents. Also what is the general s...

How to protect intellectual property in java app

What product / technology can I you use to protect my java code in a commercial application? Is there a obfuscator that does the job? On the other side, it would be great to have anything that combines file-based license management with byte-code encryption. Any Ideas? Best practices? ...

Searching for non-commercial license for source code

I have written a software program that can encode a unique type of video and would like to release the source code under a non-commercial license. However, I am having difficulty finding an existing license that meets my needs. Perhaps some fine fellow knows of one I am missing? More details By non-commercial I mean it must not be used...

Is the Artistic License 2.0 compatible with the GNU LGPL?

Perl's Artistic License 2.0 says that the source code distribution may be relicensed so long as the new license is: (ii) a license that permits the licensee to freely copy, modify and redistribute the Modified Version using the same licensing terms that apply to the copy that the licensee received, and requires that the Sou...

Usage of GPL plugins for proprietary software?

Hello. I've read existing questions about this topic on here already, but none of them seem to address my question so far. Here is the situation: We are developing a closed-source/proprietary software for a few customers. Our software is written in C++ and uses Qt 4.6, thus it makes use of the LGPL licensed version of Qt. The software...