- Linux licensing.
-Difference between operating system licenses and individual components (kernel/additional software)
COPYLEFT: A play on the word "copyright", a way of using copyrights to free authors from legal restrictions. It allows authors of software to put some but not all restrictions on their work, but minimises the posibility of copyright violations.
-GNU/GPL/LGPL
-GNU: Creation of an operating system free of closed-source software.
-Gives users the same rights to copy, redistribute and modify a work and requires all copies and derivatives to be available under the same license.
Copies may also be sold commercially, but, if produced in larger quantities (greater than 100 copies), the original document or source code must be made available to the work's recipient.
-Debate over DRM clause: "You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute."
GPL: Said to grant the recipients of a computer program the rights of the free software definition and uses copyleft to ensure the freedoms are preserved, even when the work is changed or added to.
The GPL does not give the licensee unlimited redistribution rights.
The right to redistribute is granted only if the distribution is licensed under the terms of the GPL and either includes, or unconditionally offers to include at the moment of distribution, the source code.
If one distributes copies of the work without abiding by the terms of the GPL (for instance, by keeping the source code secret), he or she can be sued by the original author under copyright law.
Applications that run under Linux on partially open-source code:
Wine/Cedega/Crossover Office
Linux Commercial Operating Systems:
Red Hat
Fedora
Xandros
Linspire
Adaption of Linux for use in 3rd world countries/copyright issues.
