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A software licensing scheme in which
programs can be modified, redistributed or even sold, with the proviso that
anyone who does so also passes on the freedom to make further changes. The copyleft idea came from Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software
Foundation (fsf), in the collaborative spirit that created unix.
It applies particularly to the fsf's gnu software. Unlike
copyright, copyleft favours the rights of users above those of
commercial software makers, and ensures that anyone who wants to make
improvements to the code for their own use or that of other can do so
freely. |
