fixed typo-s, made changes as suggested by prof.laha, added a few url-s, added a title. comments solicited.
- t. Freedom as in Speech: Introducing Free Software Licenses ---------------------------------- �The idea that the proprietary-software social system � the system that says you are not allowed to share or change software � is antisocial, that it is unethical, that it is simply wrong, may come as a surprise to some readers�, says Richard Stallman, originator of the Free Software Movement and known as RMS in hacker (added as footnote: Free software people define 'hacker' as a person who �loves to programme and enjoys being clever about it�, as opposed to one who breaks into systems with the intention of making material gains or satisfying the ego. A 'hacker' calls the second type of person a 'cracker') circles. Indeed, those of us nurtured on proprietary software have become so used to the familiar EULA (End-User License Agreement) popping up at the beginning of program installations, carefully circumscribing the user's rights (which amount to very little), may find it difficult to readily grasp the extent of the freedom granted to people under the Free Software licenses, especially the GNU General Public License. The term 'Free Software' may be a little confusing. People are often heard asking �If this is a free program, how can they sell it for a price?� The fact is, the word 'free' is used in this context not to mean 'something for which no money needs to be paid', but 'something with which you are free to do much more than is allowed by proprietary software licenses'. Free Software is not synonymous with freeware. It is �free as in speech, not as in beer�. In 1984 Richard Stallman thought of writing a new free operating system that would help him to win back the freedom and cooperation that computer users had enjoyed in the early 1970-s and which were taken away by proprietary software companies. He christened this operating-system-to-be 'GNU', which is a recursive acronym for 'GNU's not UNIX', and playfully refers to a herbivorous animal of the African savannah which has become the logo for Stallman's organisation, as anyone can find out when they visit www.gnu.org. But it was not enough to write free software; one had to make sure it remained free. In order to keep software free, Stallman devised the General Public License (GNU GPL), which practically guarantees the continued freedom of any program that is released under its terms. In essence, the GPL ensures that a user of GPL-ed software receives the program's source code along with the binaries, and also the freedom to modify the source and redistribute the program in original or modified form, either gratis or for a fee, as long as the next recipient receives the same rights and opportunities. One half-serious way of referring to this system of ensuring the continued freedom of software is using the term 'copylefting', as opposed to 'copyrighting'. In this way the GPL makes sure that once a program is made free under its terms, no one can release a new version under a different, perhaps restrictive non-free license. This last scenario is possible with software that is released under certain free software licenses other than the GPL. For example, the BSD license (also known as Public Domain) or the X Consortium License, which are much more relaxed than the GPL, allow people to use free software and create non-free programs based on them. A prominent victim of this kind of 'legal hijacking' was the BSD operating system, which was taken up by Apple and modified to create Mac OS X, which is non-free. There are many more types of 'free software' licenses, not all of which are compatible with the GPL. There can be found a list of licensing schemes which the Free Software Foundation regards as 'free licenses', on the GNU website (www.gnu.org). The FSF also has the Lesser General Public License (LGPL), which allows libraries to be linked against non-free programs, and the Free Documentation License (FDL), which is like the GPL but is applicable to text (usually manuals and tutorials) rather than to programs or source code. In order to release a program under the GPL, the author or copyright holder just needs to include an announcement of the intention in the program, and attach a copy of the GPL (downloadable from www.gnu.org) to it. All subsequent transactions of that program must contain the original announcement and the license. Famous examples of software released under the GPL include the celebrated Emacs which is much more than a 'macro editor', from which its name derives, GCC (the GNU Compiler Collection) which according to many people is the best in the business, and Linux, which is a kernel started as a hobby in 1991 by Linus Torvalds, a student of Helsinki University and later grew into an unprecedented phenomenon. But that is another story. -- Tathagata Banerjee Further Reading More about the GNU philosophy: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html Good lists of free licenses, and discussions: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html http://opensource.org/licenses/index.php On the Economics of Free Software: "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" by Eric S. Raymond http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar "The Magic Cauldron" by Eric S. Raymond http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/magic-cauldron "A-Level Economics" by Ray Powell, Letts Educational "The Real Meaning of Money" by Dorothy Rowe, Harper-Collins, 1997 -- To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the body "unsubscribe ilug-cal" and an empty subject line. FAQ: http://www.ilug-cal.org/node.php?id=3
