copyleft

The philosophy of using copyrights to enforce freedom of information, especially software source code.

Noun

  1. The philosophy of using copyrights to enforce freedom of information, especially software source code.
    • They believe in copyleft because they want their software to be used freely by anyone.
  2. A software license that follows this philosophy.
    • I have placed my program under copyleft.
    • The GNU General Public License is a copyleft licence.

Origin

A pun on copyright, which refers to using copyright laws for purposes that are in some ways contrary to copyright's original intent.

Forms

copylefts

Derived

copyleftist copyleft symbol strong copyleft weak copyleft

Verb

  1. To license under a copyleft license.
    • Linus Torvalds copylefted the Linux kernel.

Forms

copylefts copylefting copylefted

Related

🄯