copyleft

2 definitions found

copyleft - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  copyleft
  
     <legal> /kop'ee-left/ (A play on "copyright") The copyright
     notice and General Public License applying to the works of
     the Free Software Foundation, granting reuse and
     reproduction rights to everyone.
  
     Typically copyrights take away freedoms; copyleft preserves
     them.  It is a legal instrument that requires those who pass
     on a program to include the rights to use, modify, and
     redistribute the code; the code and the freedoms become
     legally inseparable.
  
     The copyleft used by the GNU Project combines a regular
     copyright notice and the "GNU General Public License" (GPL).
     The GPL is a copying license which basically says that you
     have the aforementioned freedoms.  The license is included in
     each GNU source code distribution and manual.
  
     See also General Public Virus.
  
     [Jargon File]
  
     (1995-04-18)
  

copyleft - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  copyleft
   /kop'ee.left/, n.
  
     [play on copyright]
  
     1. The copyright notice (`General Public License') carried by GNU
     EMACS and other Free Software Foundation software, granting reuse
     and reproduction rights to all comers (but see also General Public Virus
     ).
  
     2. By extension, any copyright notice intended to achieve similar
     aims.