Open Source Stack Exchange
Open Source Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [copyright]

For questions about the copyrighting process and principles. Questions solely pertaining to general copyright are off topic.

Copyrighting is the principle of assigning automatic rights over their work to content creators. These rights are in place to prevent work being stolen and used without permission for uses which perhaps the author doesn't want it to be used for.

This is very relevant to open-sourcing, because the principle of adding an open-source license is to give back to the community many of the freedoms (though not all) that they would enjoy without copyright.

346 questions
46
votes
4 answers

Should I include a copyright line in every file?

This is similar to my other question, but specifically about Copyright rather than Licensing. Typically, each source file contains a line of the form Copyright 2010-2015, Me Is this strictly necessary, or would a single COPYRIGHT file at the root…
kdopen
  • 6,967
  • 2
  • 28
  • 58
16
votes
1 answer

How do I properly specify the year(s) of copyright?

Most source files start with a copyright header like this (from GNU ld): /* Main program of GNU linker. Copyright 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Free Software Foundation,…
FUZxxl
  • 263
  • 1
  • 8
13
votes
2 answers

Is copyright automatic?

If I publish something on my website is a form of copyright automatically placed on that text? For example I know if you specifically say "This is published under [insert some cc license here]" then the copyright / usage rights are changed based on…
Trevor Clarke
  • 5,860
  • 19
  • 52
12
votes
2 answers

Can I modify source code licensed under MIT license without publishing my changes?

Imagine I write a piece of software, which uses some MIT-licensed library. Let's assume that I modified that library. My software (of which that library is part) produces some content, which I sell at a profit. I do not sell or publish my…
Glory to Russia
  • 223
  • 2
  • 6
9
votes
1 answer

Can I use my username in copyright?

I am releasing a program under the GNU GPL v3.0. I need to include a copyright notice. Is it ok to use my username in the copyright notice as I don't want to use my real name?
airsquared
  • 243
  • 1
  • 7
8
votes
1 answer

Are licenses licensed or copyrighted?

Suppose I want to modify a license. Say I choose the MIT license: ..to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the…
Caos21
  • 91
  • 5
6
votes
3 answers

Assigning copyright to a foundation rather than to me

When creating an open source project, I also write: Copyright Licensed under . There are several problems with that: My future self might use the copyright to continue development as proprietary software. I am the only…
Nicolas Raoul
  • 2,584
  • 15
  • 32
6
votes
1 answer

Do you retain copyright in a project even if all your code has been rewritten?

If somebody has participated in an open source project, and has previously contributed several lines of source code but all those lines have now been completely rewritten and/or deleted so that all earlier contributions by that person have been…
jr78
  • 61
  • 1
5
votes
1 answer

Can I assign a 2nd copyright to my employer

We are using some of my pre-existing, personally copyrighted open source software libraries at my employer. Recently they have asked me to "fix" the copyright so that it is theirs. I have no objection to them owning a version of the code, i.e. that…
Scott Swank
  • 153
  • 3
4
votes
4 answers

Declaring copyright anonymously

I want to release some software anonymously. My first idea was to release it to the public domain, but I have found out that it is not a safe practice due to incompatibilities with the legislation of some countries. After some research I concluded…
user3368561
  • 163
  • 1
  • 5
4
votes
2 answers

Adding features that are similar to a proprietary program

I have an open source discord bot which I've built myself and I liked a feature of another proprietary discord bot. So can I implement almost similar feature to my bot? Will that violate copyright rules?
Ar Rakin
  • 227
  • 1
  • 5
3
votes
1 answer

OpenSSL license questions

I want to make use of the OpenSSL library in a project, but I do not understand its license well, Then I would like to know: Does the OpenSSL license have copyleft? Should I give some attribution and if so how?
sanandresm
  • 31
  • 1
3
votes
1 answer

Mapbox Studio raster PNG tiles license (open or not?)

I have a FLOSS project using Leaflet that needs more raster base layers but we have some requirements. One of them is to only use Free Cultural works. Here the definition: https://freedomdefined.org/Definition In short, a Free Cultural Work is a…
Valerio Bozz
  • 183
  • 7
3
votes
1 answer

How much changes to open source code is needed to remove the //Copyright (c) 2017 notice, or can it never be removed

As the question state. When using open source code and there is a // Copyright (c) 2017 xxxxx in the file. I know I must keep the notice but if I change the code a bit or much do I always keep it or is there some situation when it can be removed? Is…
Kid
  • 131
  • 2
2
votes
0 answers

Getting rid of copyrighted work with incremental rewrite

I wrote an open source software (BSD-licensed) for my company, developed during business days and hours. The copyright belongs to my company. Now for some reason my company is no longer interested in maintaining the software. I would like to fork…
jack
  • 31
  • 1
1
2