The GNU General Public License (GPL) is often described as "Copyleft" because it turns traditional copyright on its head to make code freer than traditional proprietary copyright licenses. Taking that a step further, some developers are embracing the Unlicense, a license that "disclaims" copyright interest in a piece of code altogether. If the BSD, MIT, or WTFPL aren't Free enough for you, the Unlicense should fit the bill.
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14 years 37 weeks 1 day 18 hours ago
It sounds great, publishing
It sounds great, publishing software under liberal terms. It's more freedom for everyone right? Unfortunately, there is a potential problem when people publish liberally licensed software. The problem is the existence of people who derive new software from existing free software, then publish the derivate without all the necessary user freedoms. Our free software (that was intended to bring freedom) would then become a tool of user subjugation (in direct opposition to our political intentions).
The spirit of the GPL is this: all recipients of the licensed software will have permission to practise their freedoms. If all software was free, the GPL would no longer be needed as its mission of freedom would be complete. At that point an attribution-style-liberal-free-software licence would be the most restrictive licence we would ever need.