Sometime on Apr 15, nipra assembled some asciibets to say:
proprietary means owned by someone. All free software is owned by the
copyright holders. Only public domain software is not owned.
Proprietory software means owned by someone with owner exercising
control over it by means of putting up restrictions on use,
redistribution or modification of software and thus eventually making
it non-free.
So are you saying that the GPL enforces no restrictions on the use,
redistribution and modification of the software? Let me go over this.
Free to use without restriction - okay
Free to redistribute without restriction - sort of okay
Free to modify without restriction - nope
You are free to modify if and only if you either do not redistribute
your modified version, or you release your modified version under the
same terms.
This is a restriction on modification, and is only possible if you
actually own the software, ie, the software is proprietary (note the
spelling. proprietory is not a word).
"The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48"
Proprietary Pro*pri"e*ta*ry, a. L. proprietarius.
Belonging, or pertaining, to a proprietor; considered as
property; owned; as, proprietary medicine.
1913 Webster
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