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Date:      Thu, 18 Jul 2002 23:58:01 -0500
From:      "Karl O . Pinc" <kop@meme.com>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Software License Sound Bites, v 0.2
Message-ID:  <20020718235801.G8111@mofo.meme.com>
In-Reply-To: <"from kop"@meme.com>
References:  <20020718235134.E8111@mofo.meme.com>

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Please comment.  Thanks.

Karl <kop@meme.com>

Soliciting comment from:
gnu@gnu.org, osi@opensource.org, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG

-----------------------<snip>----------------------------
		     Software License Sound Bites
			     Version 0.2
		     Karl O. Pinc <kop@meme.com>
		  President, The Meme Factory, Inc.
			 http://www.meme.com

       Copyright (c) 2002, Karl O. Pinc
       Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
       document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
       Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software
       Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover
       Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license is
       available at "http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.txt".


Free Software, not copylefted (e.g. modified BSD License):
    My code is yours, but don't sue me.

Free Software, copylefted (e.g. GNU GPL):
    You may have my code, but put it away if you're not going to share
    with your friends.

Open Source:
    Code for everybody!  No royalties!


Free Software can be used, improved, and given away or sold, by anyone
who has legally obtained a working copy of the software.  Just two,
optional, restrictions on the use of the software are permitted:
should the software be defective, the authors cannot be sued; the
rights of use, alteration, and re-distribution must continue to be
passed onward, in turn, to those who have legally obtained subsequent
improvements.  Free Software subject to the second of these optional
restrictions is said to be copylefted.

Open Source software is that which can be used, read, and improved,
for any purpose, by anyone who has legally obtained a working copy of
the software; improvements may be re-distributed, either for sale or
for free, without payment of royalties.  Other restrictions compatible
with these criteria may exist.

As the neither of the two restrictions allowed by the Free Software
definition violate the Open Source criteria, Free Software is one
variety of Open Source software.  As the Open Source definition allows
other restrictions to be placed on the use, distribution, and
modification of the software, all Open Source software is not Free
Software.

Users of Free Software who understand the Free Software definition and
know whether their software is copylefted can be confident they know
their rights and obligations.  Users of Open Source software who
understand the Open source definition can be confident they have
certain rights.  Users of any kind of non-Free Software must examine
the terms of their software license(s) to discover what obligations
they have to the copyright holder and what restrictions the license
may place on their activities.

For more information see:
    What is the BSD License?
         http://www.bsdnewsletter.com/bsd/license.html
    The Free Software Definition         
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
    The Open Source Definition
         http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php

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