52 lines
2.0 KiB
HTML
52 lines
2.0 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
|
|
|
|
<html>
|
|
<head>
|
|
<title>Licensing FAQ - FSFE Legal</title>
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" media="all" href="/style/grid.css" type="text/css" />
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" media="all" href="ftf.css" type="text/css" />
|
|
</head>
|
|
|
|
<body>
|
|
<p id="category"><a href="/activities/ftf/ftf.html">Legal</a></p>
|
|
<h2>What is software licensing?</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>Software licences tell people how the rights holder (usually the author)
|
|
wants the software to be used and what freedoms or restrictions it has.
|
|
Without a licence, many uses of the software may be prohibited.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Free Software licenses are licenses that give permission for a user to
|
|
obtain <a href="/documents/freesoftware.html">four important freedoms</a>;
|
|
the freedom to use, modify, share and
|
|
improve software. Copyleft licenses are Free Software licences that
|
|
allow the four fundamental freedoms under the condition that those
|
|
freedoms remain intact in further distribution of the software or
|
|
derivative works.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The <a href="http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html">GNU GPL</a> is the most
|
|
famous Free Software copyleft license and is
|
|
used by a large percentage of Free Software projects. It has many
|
|
useful features, like ensuring the four freedoms and providing a limited
|
|
warranty and disclaimer of liability clause to protect developers
|
|
releasing their work to the public.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>There are many <a href="http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/">Free Software licenses</a>,
|
|
some without any copyleft effect.
|
|
Some of these are compatible with the GNU GPL, some have special
|
|
provisions that enable compatibility, some are incompatible.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>If people use the same licence or at least compatible licences then
|
|
projects can exchange code freely. We encourage everyone to use the
|
|
GNU GPL for all software.</p>
|
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
|
|
<timestamp>$Date$ $Author$</timestamp>
|
|
|
|
</html>
|
|
<!--
|
|
Local Variables: ***
|
|
mode: xml ***
|
|
End: ***
|
|
-->
|