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Do you legally have to agree and accept an open source license to use open source software?
If you want others to use, distribute, modify, or contribute back to your project, you need to include an open source license. For example, someone cannot legally use any part of your GitHub project in their code, even if it’s public, unless you explicitly give them the right to do so.
Does open source mean no license?
To use a piece of software, whether it’s open source or commercial, you need some grant of rights. This means that no one can legally use, copy, distribute, or modify that software without explicit permission from the creator/author. This permission comes in the form of a license that grants the right to do so.
Can I use unlicensed code?
1 Answer. Code without an explicit license is protected by copyright and is by default All Rights Reserved. The person or people who wrote the code are protected as such. Any time you’re using software you didn’t write, licensing should be considered and abided.
What can I assume if a publicly published project has no license?
Unless the software includes strong indications to the contrary, lack of a license is probably an oversight. If the software is hosted on a site like GitHub, open an issue requesting a license and include a link to this site, or if you’re bold and it’s fairly obvious what license is most appropriate, open a pull request to add a license.
Can I restrict how people use an open source licensed program?
In particular, copyleft -style Open Source licenses require that, in at least some cases, when you distribute the software, you must do so under the same license you received it under. Can I restrict how people use an Open Source licensed program?
Can you sell software under an open source license?
You can even sell Open Source software. However, note that commercial is not the same as proprietary. If you receive software under an Open Source license, you can always use that software for commercial purposes, but that doesn’t always mean you can place further restrictions on people who receive the software from you.
What does a permissive open source license mean?
A “permissive” license is simply a non-copyleft open source license — one that guarantees the freedoms to use, modify, and redistribute, but that permits proprietary derivative works. See the copyleft entry for more information. Only if it uses one of the approved licenses, and releases appropriate software.