Unanswered Questions
128 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
7
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1
answer
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Is it illegal for my school to install spyware onto my own laptop?
My school installed something called 'Securus XT' onto my laptop. I knew it was meant to be a safeguarding thing but I didn't know they would be able to see every single thing I do on my own laptop (...
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4
votes
0
answers
188
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Would it be legal to avoid Unity (Game Engine) licensing by having the end-user build the project
Is it legal (assuming US) if instead of paying for a proprietary software and accepting their terms and conditions for distribution, to require the user to own this proprietary software and use it as ...
4
votes
0
answers
182
views
How did software copyright work in the US before 1978?
Prior to the Copyright Act of 1976 (which, confusingly, only went into effect in 1978) the copyright rules were different. One of the things that was introduced was that after the beginning of 1978, ...
- 7,263
4
votes
0
answers
275
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What is the definition of "substantial portions of Software" that is used in MIT License?
Text of MIT License is as follows:
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal ...
- 141
4
votes
0
answers
2k
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Can I distribute the Google TTS Engine with offline data on my device?
My company would like to distribute devices containing preinstalled Google Text-to-Speech (TTS) engine, together with some downloaded offline voice data.
Can we do this without the need to acquire ...
- 141
4
votes
0
answers
206
views
Quebec language law and "French First" requirement
Suppose I am developing an application for company A which will be used by A's employees worldwide. A has offices in Quebec, Canada. I am aware that local laws exist in Quebec which protect workers ...
- 4,336
4
votes
0
answers
82
views
Copyright law and distribution terms for public versions or derivatives
The present question is a special case of Can one take BSD licensed code and distribute it under GPL?.
Looking recently at OpenBSD's LibreSSL, I've noticed that SSLeay that it traces its roots to (...
CommunityBot
- 1
3
votes
1
answer
275
views
Military Clause of the Hippocratic Software License
The Hippocratic license is a software license that provides a list of ethical standards for the licensee. I am puzzled about the phrasing of the "military activities" clause.
This section ...
CommunityBot
- 1
3
votes
0
answers
1k
views
When will the baseline patents for encoding/decoding the AAC format expire?
The MP4 container is the most ubiquitous video format in the world. It is commonly used with the H.264 video codec, of which there has been a lot written about when the patents for this codec will ...
- 61
3
votes
0
answers
55
views
Licensing of template code
GitHub has template repositories, that make it easy to offer starter code for new projects. I want to allow anyone to generate their projects from my template and then change the license to whatever ...
- 131
3
votes
0
answers
274
views
Keygen legality
Say I own a Microsoft Windows license key, but I lose it. I have no proof of purchase or anything. Can I use a keygen, and use that key to use the same software that I technically own?
I've done ...
- 131
3
votes
0
answers
210
views
Carelessly used Visual Studio Preview to develop an app that I'd like to release; what are my options?
A game. It started as an academic project, though I've always intended to release it (for free) at some point.
I checked the licence terms of Visual Studio 2017 Community. Happy, happy, joy joy:
...
- 59
3
votes
0
answers
119
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Open source crypto project wallet and its liability
I'm working on a crypto wallet for a top 50 cryptocurrency. I'm part of the core team and we were discussing potential liability around the app we're building.
It's released as-is and under a BSD-2 ...
- 31
3
votes
0
answers
172
views
Is is legal to include a bot software into an installation by explaining to the user?
I made a bot program which only visits some websites automatically (not a virus, worm, trojan and etc) and I'm planning to install it as an additional program near main program.
I know it is illegal ...
- 31
3
votes
1
answer
462
views
Is reverse engineering for research legal?
I want to look at the code of a certain app, without modifying it. Is that fine accordingly to EU laws ? Btw, sorry if I posted this in the wrong place.
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