Week 6 - The effect of Copyleft and choosing a software license

Types of Copy Left Software Licenses

Copy left is a witty play on Copyright where the software licenses allow users to copy, modify and distribute them with the condition of not monetizing and copyrighting it. 

 

Types of Copy Left

Open Source Licenses are subjective, as such having a broad classification of licenses is due to the complexity of legal compliance.

Strong Copy Left (GNU GPL)

Modified software under this license are required to have the same licenses as the original software. In the context of Linux, distros such as RedHat, Ubuntu use such licenses to build a business supporting and consulting on extra features. Changes and dates must be tracked in the source file.

Weak Copy Left (MPL)

Developed by Mozilla, Weak Copy left or Semi Permissive Licenses such as MPL are often used to combine with proprietary components. MPL1.1 requires a notice in each source file, but MPL2.0 is compatible with GPL.

Permissive Licenses  (BSD)

Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) licenses do not need the source code to be distributed at all, it is ideal for projects involving hardware and software which requires protocols to be interoperable. In this case Permissive Licenses such as BSD, there are less restrictions and thus considered as lower risk.


Why is there a need to Copy Left ? 

Copyleft is about user freedom, as opposed to Copyright, the premise behind such practice is about collaboration, exchanging ideas and allowing others learn, build and share modified documentation/software back to the Open-source Community.

 

 

References:

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html 

https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/mpl-2.0-release

https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/copyleft-vs-copyright

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-between-copyright-and-copyleft-in-foss/

https://wiki.itcollege.ee/index.php/E-SPEAIT_T6_Computers_and_Laws_II

https://snyk.io/learn/what-is-copyleft-license/

https://www.synopsys.com/blogs/software-security/top-open-source-licenses/

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/MPL/2.0/

https://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2802551&cid=39762949

https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/how-risky-license-risk


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