Questions tagged [licensing]
Questions about the licensing of content on Stack Exchange sites.
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The MIT License – Clarity on Using Code on Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange
Update (Dec. 22, 2015): Thanks, everyone, for your feedback to this proposal. We're going to digest this one over the holidays and should have a follow-up announcement answering your questions and ...
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An Update On Creative Commons Licensing
We’d like to provide you with an update to our transition to version 4.0 of the CC BY-SA license. We realize that this is something that you care deeply about, and that our response to your concerns ...
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Was the retroactive change to CC BY-SA 4.0 approved by Stack Exchange's lawyers?
Update: I have started a GoFundMe in an attempt to have a court or arbitrator settle this. It has raised a decent amount, but more will be necessary to retain counsel.
On 2019-09-05, Stack Exchange ...
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Will concerns regarding the move to CC BY-SA 4.0 elicit any further dialogue from Stack Exchange, Inc.?
Fifteen days ago, it was suddenly announced that the user-contributed content on Stack Exchange had been relicensed as CC BY SA 4.0.
The change took immediate and retroactive effect and is still in ...
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Is it legal to copy Stack Overflow questions and answers?
I just found http://programmingfaq.w3ec.com/faq/4761/whats-the-hi-lo-algorithm which has an exact copy of this Stack Overflow question, What's the Hi/Lo Algorithm, with all its answers and no ...
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Creative Commons Licensing UI and Data Updates
When we last updated you to clarify concerns and answer questions about our transition to version 4.0 of the CC BY-SA license we committed to posting updates to the UI and addressing unanswered ...
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Is SE [going to be] selling our content for AI model training? And what exactly does "reinvest back into our communities" mean?
Wired published an article titled Stack Overflow Will Charge AI Giants for Training Data. I read through it, and a few sections seemed noteworthy to me
"Community platforms that fuel LLMs ...
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What is "code" for the purposes of the proposed MIT license switchover? [closed]
A follow up from my comment about the new license announcement and samthebrand's response (also from the new license change attempt):
The proposed new licensing terms differentiate between code and ...
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Code licensing proposal — Point of order!
There have been two rounds of discussion about code licensing:
The MIT License – Clarity on Using Code on Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange
A New Code License: The MIT, this time with Attribution ...
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Has SO apologized for their licensing fait accompli?
In the latest news from SO, the following was posted (emphasis mine):
Licensing
MIT licensing of code was proposed, but held back due to community naysayers.
CC-BY-SA incremented from 3.0 ...
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What is up with the source code license on Stack Overflow? [duplicate]
I know this has been asked several times. I've read the responses. I'm still very confused.
What are the legal requirements for using samples from SO in other projects? If there are requirements, ...
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Why do people object to the license change so strongly despite having preference towards the proposed new license (CC 4)?
I noticed that many are happy to have their content (questions and answers) published under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, which was proposed recently, but received a great backlash.
The last time ...
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EU copyright laws (2018-2019). Any risk for Stack Exchange?
The European Parliament JURI committee will be voting on 20th June 2018 on reforms of the EU copyright laws (full law proposal). According to a Creative Commons article titled 'Act now to stop the EU’...
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How do I get my content on Stack Exchange licensed correctly or else removed?
I do not agree to my old content being relicensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (it is not the same as 3.0).
Stack Exchange is not the owner of my contributions and is not allowed to change the license without ...
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Can one take the entire Q&A base and move it to a new site?
In the light of all recent moderators and experienced users quitting, I was wondering if anyone is allowed to take the entire Q&A set of a site, and move it to a new site, with new rules?
I think ...
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Communication priorities
Two days ago, via a post on codegolf.meta which summarised a number of recent network-level issues, I stumbled upon Stack Exchange and Stack Overflow have moved to CC BY-SA 4.0. I was astonished to ...
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Is the re-licensing situation perceived as much less important than Monica's defamation lawsuit? [closed]
When one compares the two (currently) relevant GoFundMe pages Defend Monica from Defamation by Stack Overflow and Lawsuit against Stack Exchange relicensing it is obvious that the first one attracts ...
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How can SE gate access to the Dump that will allow individuals access to the data while preventing "misuse" by for-profit organizations?
I read this answer written by Jody Bailey:
We are looking for ways to gate access to the Dump, APIs, and SEDE, that will allow individuals access to the data while preventing misuse by organizations ...
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Please negotiate and make obvious user-favorable license terms for uploaded images
Uploading photos to Imgur appears to assign them rights to do whatever they wish with them.
It would appear that, taken on face value, uploading an image to Imgur gives them total non-exclusive rights ...
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Where can I ask about Software Licenses/Licensing?
Is it appropriate to ask questions about software licenses/licensing on StackOverflow? Or is the appropriate place Programmers Stack Exchange? Or is there no appropriate site currently and we should ...
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In which context would the difference in licensing rules between CC SA 3.0 and CC SA 4.0 actually matter?
Currently there's a big controversy over SE changing the licensing from CC 3.0 to CC 4.0. Regardless of whether this change was legally solid or not, could someone provide a specific example of how ...
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CC-by-SA vs MIT - The 2016 battle
Stack Exchange is announcing the change from CC-BY-SA 3.0 to MIT License and the chaos has emerged.
After a few hours of research, I've concluded that I've been breaking the law (license) since the ...
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Stack Exchange should stop using the Creative Commons logo [duplicate]
If I understand correctly, SE reproduces its user-produced content using a CC-BY-SA license with additional restrictions: namely, from point 3 of the TOS,
In the event that You post or otherwise use ...
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Stopping data dumps to "protect data" - harmful and threatening to the community
I find it a bit odd that "senior leadership is working on a strategy to protect Stack Overflow data from being misused by companies building LLMs", but historically has only cared about ...
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How does the Creative Commons license affect deleted content?
I can understand the Creative Commons license pretty clear-cut when it comes to normal content visible anywhere on the network, but does anything change when that content has been deleted? I've ...
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Dealing with posts plagiarising from copyrighted sources
What means do users have to report plagiarism or posting of copyrighted work?
A button to flag content as plagiarism would be useful. It's not quite "offensive," and should probably have a different ...
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I'm worried about Stack Overflow content licensing [duplicate]
Strongly related: Do I have to worry about copyright issues for code posted on Stack Overflow?
It appears that all the submitted content on Stack Overflow is licensed under the Creative Commons (CC) ...
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Are the SE additions to the Creative Commons attribution requirements enforceable? [duplicate]
In the footer of Stack Exchange sites, it is stated that user contributions are licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 with a contradictory and incompatible attribution requirement addendum.
The “attribution ...
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Adding a bounty should not change the license of a post
I found a minor bug, and after a search here on Meta.SE, I discovered that it had been reported all the way back in 2013. To draw a bit of attention to it, I then added a bounty to the post.
The past ...
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A New Code License: the Community Edition
Okay, so that proposal didn't go very well...
Clearly, the community thinks Stack Overflow, Inc messed up with their license proposal. Now it is time to you to prove we, as a community, can do better....
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29
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Is it okay to use DMCA takedown notices to remove my content from SCRAPER sites?
I've (okay, it wasn't entirely me) found yet another SCRAPER site, and have reported it to Stack Exchange through the standard route. This scraper is somewhat exceptional in that it's scraping a ...
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Can SE just resell our data, relicense it and remove the attribution requirement?
SE has decided to charge for the network content when used for training AI according to an article. This has not been officially announced here, so we do not know the details.
But the main question to ...
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Is my copyrighted artwork protected if I upload it to a post?
Note this is not a question about using copyrighted material I do not own. It's about materials I own and have all rights to.
A question on GraphicDesign.SE has spurred some comments regarding image ...
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Why separate code and non-code licensing?
The rationale for the license change proposals is at least somewhat clear: i.e. to reduce legal concerns of using code from answers in software that may use incompatible licenses. However, what seems ...
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What license do the help center articles that are editable by moderators fall under?
I was looking at the text of the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, which is the license used by posts on the SE network. Specifically, I noted the phrase that...
You must give appropriate credit, provide a link ...
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Can we have a dropdown to choose a code license?
I'm not fully satisfied with Stack Exchange's recent proposal to change the code license to an MIT-like crayon license. What if I want the plain MIT license, where the license text must be replicated? ...
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Use of ELMAH code without Apache license 2.0 on stack-exchange-data-explorer
I am a developer on the ELMAH project and recently I was browsing the stack-exchange-data-explorer project on Google Code. And I noticed too many similarities between SimpleErrorHandler and ELMAH to ...
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Stack Exchange does not show up in Google's Creative Commons Search
Not quite sure if this is bug report or feature request.
In Google Advanced Search, you can search by CC license: http://search.creativecommons.org/. Other search engines also have similar features.
...
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Does Amazon Alexa use Stack Exchange content, and if so, is it done legally?
According to the Stack Exchange content license (CC-BY-SA), uses of content on Stack Exchange sites must be properly attributed.
However, I have noticed Amazon Alexa (accessed using an Echo device) ...
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Am I allowed to create a Stack Exchange-like forum?
I am looking into creating a forum with a system of self-moderation and reputation which is the same system as Stack Exchange sites.
I have seen many websites on the Web with the same format, ...
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CommonMark migration is causing license changes when it should not
CommonMark migration has begun!
Sites across the network have been scheduled for formatting migration, and some of them (Meta Stack Exchange included) have already finished their migration.
It was ...
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Should I be using content from deleted posts on the Stack Exchange network?
If someone makes a post on any site on the Stack Exchange Network, they grant Stack Exchange a license to (among other things) display and store the work. This license is irrevocable, even if the ...
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The create-chatroom page incorrectly specifies the conversations as licensed under "cc-wiki" (CC BY-SA 2.5)
The create a new chat-room page likely doesn't get a lot of traffic, which probably makes issues with it have a relatively low impact, but this one should be fixed:
The text reads:
All ...
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Does a third party deleting an account that still has posts violate CC BY-SA 4.0?
According to Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license, you need to retain the name of the creator when sharing licensed material.
If You Share the Licensed Material (...
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To who are translations licensed in Stack Exchange international sites that are submitted by community users?
International sites translate much of their content (other than questions and answers) with the help of community users.
How are these contributions licensed?
There are more than 10,000 strings, not a ...
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Are Stack Exchange blog articles also under Creative Common license?
Recently I stumbled on the site of an IT company that replicated the entire article "Do large language models know what they are talking about?" with attribution.
For basic content on the ...
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What sort of attribution should Stack Exchange members expect for their work?
I've been thinking about the feedback over code licensing, and it seems like there's a significant gap in thinking between two portions of the user base - one that wants attribution, and one that ...
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Does SE need to switch to CC-BY-SA 4.0?
User contributions to Stack Exchange sites are licensed under Creative Commons; share alike, with attribution required. The version is 3.0, see cc-wiki in the footer.
However, the most current ...
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Will SE tell us if they sell our content?
So, the CEO of Stack Exchange has been quoted in a news article saying that they plan to sell the content of the SE network to large companies training neural networks like the one used for ChatGPT. ...
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What licence is subscriber content provided under 4.0, 3.0 or them all?
In the footer it says:
site design / logo © 2018 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required. rev 2018.8.7.31273
However, in the footer under ...
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