By Melanie Mason

All those who find problems with just about any type of software, art, or literature raise your hands. Now don't you wish that when you come across a problem, you had the power to fix it?

Well, there is a way if the material is "copyleft."

Copyleft? What is that? According to Michael Stutz, "Copyleft means a copyright notice that permits unrestricted redistribution and modification, provided that all copies and derivatives retain the same permissions."

In other words, free information that can be altered, changed, improved or whatever else you want to do with it, as long as it remains free to the world.

Copyleft is part of the GNU General Public License created by Richard Stallman. The GNU project was founded to allow people the freedom of free software.

The only catch with copyleft is you have to give credit to the original creator. Not money, just credit. According to Faramir Copyleft, "this is typically applied to free software. For example, if I write a program and you improve it, if you release your version to the wide world, you can't just ship the binary files, you must have all of the source code and you can't alter/restrict/amend the licensing arrangement. The license agreement must remain and be clearly stated." This way you can't make money off someone else's idea by patenting it, it has to remain copylefted.

Stallman, in an article on free software, states "the system of copyright gives software programs 'owners,' most of whom aim to withhold software's potential benefit from the rest of the public. They would like to be the only ones who can copy and modify the software that we use."

Copyright laws give software owners a chance to keep technology to themselves or sell it only to those who can afford it. With copyleft, people are allowed the opportunity to get software for free AND to alter, change, modify and redistribute it.

To make things even better copyleft is not limited to software, it can also be applied to art and literature. All you have to do is copyleft your work and it is available to the world no charge. Check out this example.

Now the door is wide open, thanks to GNU and Stallman's insight, to a free world.

NW
MS

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