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Everything about Copyleft

Preservation of legal rights in the reuse of a work

Copyleft is the legal technique of granting certain freedoms over copies of copyrighted works with the requirement that the same rights be preserved in derivative works. In this sense, freedoms refers to the use of the work for any purpose, and the ability to modify, copy, share, and redistribute the work, with or without a fee. Licenses which implement copyleft can be used to maintain copyright conditions for works ranging from computer software, to documents, art, and scientific discoveries. Similar approaches have been applied to certain patents. Wikipedia →

🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path

  1. Read the overview: CopyleftA 5-minute orientation
  2. Skim a recent paper: Open Source License Obligations: Attribution and CopyleftInfluential work since 2022
  3. Pick up a classic book: Software libre para una sociedad libreThe most-reprinted book on the subject
  4. Read the landmark paper: Copyleft—the economics of Linux and other open source softwareCited 119 times
  5. Go sideways: GNU Lesser General Public LicenseA closely related topic
  6. Go sideways: GNU General Public LicenseA closely related topic

📖 Definitions

Noun The philosophy of using copyrights to enforce freedom of information, especially software source code.

Noun A software license that follows this philosophy.

Verb To license under a copyleft license.

🗂️ The subject at a glance

  1. History
  2. Principles
  3. Application
  4. Types and relation to other licenses
  5. Debate and controversy
  6. Symbol

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

🆕 Influential since 2022

📚 Books worth reading

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

🔗 Related topics