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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>
  • To: pcplantdb@lists.ibiblio.org, permacultureinfo@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Cc:
  • Subject: [pcplantdb] Copyleft background and definition
  • Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2004 14:29:05 -0700

Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 19:55:47 -0400 (EDT)
From: lucia@lrw.net
To: fukuoka_farming@yahoogroups.com

Hello Bart and welcome to the group. I'm excited to see you bring up the
issue of copyleft. My husband and I have been committed to that philosophy
for over 10 years. I want to clarify your explanation of what it is
however:
<....>
copyleft is not in the public domain. copyleft is a specific kind of
copyright that includes a paragraph that obligates the
user to continue free distribution of the information, code, text,
whatever it is. It is a copyright license that was invented by Richard
Stallman, a computer programmer who has been fighting against proprietary
software since the 1960s. His work is revolutionary and has implications
way beyond computers. for a simple definition, go to his website:

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html

-----------------
"What is Copyleft?

Copyleft is a general method for making a program free software and
requiring all modified and extended versions of the program to be free
software as well.

The simplest way to make a program free is to put it in the public domain,
uncopyrighted. This allows people to share the program and their
improvements, if they are so minded. But it also allows uncooperative
people to convert the program into proprietary software. They can make
changes, many or few, and distribute the result as a proprietary product.
People who receive the program in that modified form do not have the
freedom that the original author gave them; the middleman has stripped it
away."
-------------------------------------
"free" in this context refers to freedom to distribute, not free beer. a
copylefted program can be sold.
--------
"To copyleft a program, we first state that it is copyrighted; then we add
distribution terms, which are a legal instrument that gives everyone the
rights to use, modify, and redistribute the program's code or any program
derived from it but only if the distribution terms are unchanged. Thus,
the code and the freedoms become legally inseparable.

Proprietary software developers use copyright to take away the users'
freedom; we use copyright to guarantee their freedom. That's why we
reverse the name, changing``copyright'' into ``copyleft.''
-----------------------------------------------------
The following version is for text:
--------
The GNU Free Documentation License (FDL) (available in HTML, text and
Texinfo) is a form of copyleft intended for use on a manual, textbook or
other document to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and
redistribute it, with or without modifications, either commercially or
noncommercially.
---------------------------------------------------

-lucia




  • [pcplantdb] Copyleft background and definition, Lawrence F. London, Jr., 09/09/2004

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