Legal things
I have an 'organization' which isnt registered anywhere but i want to put its name under credits in 'about' for my open source program.
can i use (C) symbol?
example:
(C) Triangle on The Wall organization 2023-2024, all rights reserved
or should i drop (C) and 'all rights reserved'?
i want my program to be free and open source, but i don't want my organisation logo, program logo, their names or my nickname to be used anywhere
20 Replies
"all rights reserved" and FOSS are mutually exclusive
you still retain copyright, but you're explicitly not reserving some rights by using a FOSS license
is Triangle on The Wall a legal entity?
you said it's not registered anywhere @TheGoose
its just my made up name/nickname, i want to use it as my pseudonym
well, one of them, im also vtg and thegoosewiththebowtie
i want to put it there just for the cool looks and all i want to reserve are my logos i made myself
dunno how it works with pseudonyms
as for logos, that falls under trademark law afaik, not copyright
logos and names
sorry, I'm just horrible in a law field🥲
there are actually licenses like that
iirc Firefox's license doesn't let you use the name or logo if you modified it
Choose a License
Mozilla Public License 2.0
Permissions of this weak copyleft license are conditioned on making available source code of licensed files and modifications of those files under the same license (or in certain cases, one of the GNU licenses). Copyright and license notices must be preserved. Contributors provide an express grant of patent rights. However, a larger work using t...
can i still use ©️ tho?
it just looks cool (im not 14 honestly, im just stupid 😭😭😭)
yes, because you still hold the copyright on the code
you're just licensing it out to the public under the terms of the MPL (or whatever)
thank you♥️
I'm not a lawyer, but this is the understanding I've come to
if you intend to build an actual business or whatever around this, talk to an IP attorney
(intellectual property)
no, im not, all the things im planning to make are going to be open source, it's just my views or something (actually its my impostor syndrome and i don't think that i deserve money for my work xdxdxdxd)
and all i want is to make a cool 'about' in my programs xdxddxd
https://github.com/thegoosewiththebowtie/dmtools/tree/master
I've used this one, is it ok?
GitHub
GitHub - thegoosewiththebowtie/dmtools: desktop tool for dungeon ma...
desktop tool for dungeon masters from a dungeon master - GitHub - thegoosewiththebowtie/dmtools: desktop tool for dungeon masters from a dungeon master
I haven't used the 3-clause license myself
it's pretty much up to you to read up on the different licenses and what they entail
Adopt an open source license and often its contents contain the guide for you. Copyright claim is still needed, so that people can track down who hold the rights. You might also set up a CLA early so that you can take pull requests from others.
It would be easy if this is your personal project and you are the only contributor, but if you foresee its growth you must read books like https://producingoss.com/ and be prepared.
a CLA isn't actually necessary
without one the copyright is just spread across all the contributors
which can be what you want
That can be a disaster one day when you want to go big (commercialize the code).
Assuming US. Text itself can be copyrighted as literary work, especially if its an image. Btw the font can't be copyrighted. The image can be copyrighted all rights reserved, especially if you don't use it in the program itself. Counter-intuitively, If you are distributing the image, you will have to definitely include information on right to use and distribute and pose a license agreement on it. I think you should just copyright/trademark the logo itself without the text.
if your goal is to make a relicense like that difficult, then eschewing a CLA is a good idea
Disclaimer: Nobody here admits to being a lawyer.
like i already said, i have no plans on commercialising this program, the whole point is to give people a free alternative to dozens of webapps with the same functionality, but behind the paywall
I just want to save the right to use 'triangle on the wall organization' and 'dmtools'