Open Source Stack Exchange Community Digest

Top new questions this week:

Can FOSS software licenses (e.g. MIT, Apache, GNU, etc.) apply to documents without the need to be rewritten?

I wish to share some documents in the .md format and to license them permissively. Do I need to specifically seek a license that specifically covers the scope of static documents, or can I use a …

collaboration documentation non-commercial floss

asked by vannan Score of 12 answered by Philip Kendall Score of 30

Is CC-BY 4.0 attribution recursive?

Let’s say we have Work A licensed under CC-BY 4.0, made by Author A. Author B uses Work A to create Work B, attributing Work A: “Work A was created by Author A under the CC-BY 4.0 license (link …

license-notice license cc-by

asked by Ignis Incendio Score of 8 answered by MadHatter Score of 14

License to accept contributions without losing the rights on the application

English is not my native language so all the subtleties of licensing law are lost on me. I can’t find what I’m looking for. The initial problem: I have created an association and its website which …

licensing proprietary-code contributor contributor-agreements

asked by Shäninjah Score of 3 answered by ruben2020 Score of 6

Greatest hits from previous weeks:

How can a project be relicensed?

I’ve found out that the license I picked for my project does not quite do what I wanted it do (bad research). Now I want to change the license. Is it as simple as changing the LICENSE.txt in the root?…

licensing relicensing

asked by ratchet freak Score of 88 answered by Mnementh Score of 63

Why don’t unprivileged user accounts violate the GPLv3?

The GPLv3 says: Some devices are designed to deny users access to install or run modified versions of the software inside them, although the manufacturer can do so. This is fundamentally incompatible …

gpl-3

asked by jobukkit Score of 4 answered by MadHatter Score of 12

How does GitHub's “forking right” cope with an “All rights reserved” project?

The GitHub FAQ states (emphasis mine): You’re under no obligation to choose a license. It’s your right not to include one with your code or project, but please be aware of the implications. …

copyright github forking unlicensed-code terms-of-service

asked by o0'. Score of 72 answered by apsillers Score of 72

What is the difference between FOSS and FLOSS?

FOSS stands for “Free and Open Source Software”, whereas FLOSS stands for “Free/Libre/Open Source Software”. The use of libre denotes the idea that the software is “free as in free speech, not free …

terminology floss

asked by HDE 226868 Score of 38 answered by Zizouz212 Score of 25

Is requiring a license a violation of the GPL? Can I get around it?

At work, we use a version of GCC provided by a vendor of a proprietary OS. The vendor has modified gcc so that it will only run if it successfully acquires one of a limited number of licenses we’ve …

gpl derivative-works

asked by Daniel McHenry Score of 56 answered by user2838 Score of 50

Why is CC BY-SA discouraged for code?

Everybody knows that you shouldn’t use a CC BY-SA license on your code. Even the Creative Commons folk recommend against it. What I don’t know or understand is why. I can’t seem to find any …

licensing creative-commons multi-licensing cc-by-sa source-code

asked by RubberDuck Score of 82 answered by congusbongus Score of 65

Can the MIT license be applied to music?

If not, are there any other good options for me to effectively allow use by everyone for almost any reason? I’d prefer to take a hands-off approach as opposed to attempting to place anything in the …

mit license-recommendation

asked by Onkoe Score of 19 answered by Philip Kendall Score of 43