How does licensing affect my website?

Question

I like to use prebuilt CSS/JS such as Foundation and PureCSS and I'm curious as to how I should go about displaying the licensing information, as well as how the license will affect the code that I write.

I'm wondering this:

1. How does the license of a library that I use affect my code? (Am I required to use the same license and make my code available?)

2. How do I display the license information for Foundation/PureCSS? (Footer, LICENSE file, etc. etc.)

Answer 1

Usually, their license information is also within the .js and .css files that you are using for your JavaScript and CSS.

As an example, I use a lot of bootstrap colours from Bootswatch which are premade themes and colour sets. Here is an example of one of the license information within the bootstrap.css file:

/*!
 * Bootswatch v3.1.1+1
 * Homepage: http://bootswatch.com
 * Copyright 2012-2014 Thomas Park
 * Licensed under MIT
 * Based on Bootstrap
*/

I don't see a reason why it effects your code? Also, I go under the idea of "If it isn't broke, don't fix it or recreate it". Usually, if you include some other code within your code, you are required to give credit for their code. You will have to read their rules and policies for including it.

Also, if they have a comment box of information, like the above example, then there is the displayed license information.