OSS and Copyright

Dear All,

I read repeatedly the claim, that Free and Open Source software would be
without copyright.

This is absolutely not true. To the contrary, OSS has a very strong
copyright. Software with no copyright is "Public Domain" Software, which is
something very different.

The difference to usual "proprietary software" is, that there the user gets
nearly no rights (i.e. usually only the right to use the software under
certain conditions), but the GPL e.g. gives the user much more rights, i.e.
to use, study, modify, and re-distribute the SW, as long as it is released
again under the GPL.

The GPL copyright gives e.g. the user no right to claim, that it would be
his software, or to distribute it under a "closed" license.

The copyright for every GPL'ed software is still held by somebody. Linus
Torvalds e.g. holds the copyright for the Linux kernel.

Since the rights, which the GPL gives the user are so much different from
the rights, which one obtains through a common "proprietary SW license",
the GPL is often jokingly called "copyleft", but in judicial terms, this is
still a copyright.

So, I suggest, that when you make a presentation, or write an article, or
prepare a project description, be careful not to claim, that OSS would be
without copyright!

Best Regards,
Stefan

To facilitate co-ordination regarding the introduction of OSS SW in Vietnam

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