Afree license oropen license is alicense that allows copyrighted work to be reused, modified, and redistributed. These uses are normally prohibited bycopyright,patent or otherIntellectual property (IP) laws. The term broadly coversfree content licenses andopen-source licenses, also known asfree software licenses.
The invention of the term "free license" and the focus on therights of users were connected to the sharing traditions of thehacker culture of the 1970s public domain software ecosystem, the social and politicalfree software movement (since 1980) and theopen source movement (since the 1990s).[1] These rights were codified by different groups and organizations for different domains inFree Software Definition,Open Source Definition,Debian Free Software Guidelines,Definition of Free Cultural Works andThe Open Definition.[2] These definitions were then transformed into licenses, using thecopyright as legal mechanism. Ideas of free/open licenses have since spread into different spheres of society.
Open source,free culture (unified asfree and open-source movement),anticopyright,Wikimedia Foundation projects,public domain advocacy groups andpirate parties are connected with free and open licenses.
Free software licenses, also known asopen-source licenses, aresoftware licenses that allow content to be used, modified, and shared.[3] They facilitatefree and open-source software (FOSS) development.[4]Intellectual property (IP) laws restrict the modification and sharing of creative works.[5] Free and open-source licenses use these existing legal structures for an inverse purpose.[6] Theygrant the recipient the rights to use the software, examine thesource code, modify it, and distribute the modifications. These criteria are outlined in theOpen Source Definition andThe Free Software Definition.[7]
After 1980, the United States began to treat software as a literary work covered by copyright law.[8]Richard Stallman founded thefree software movement in response to the rise ofproprietary software.[9] The term "open source" was used by theOpen Source Initiative (OSI), founded by free software developersBruce Perens andEric S. Raymond.[10][11] "Open source" is alternative label that emphasizes the strengths of theopen development model rather than software freedoms.[12] While the goals behind the terms are different, open-source licenses andfree software licenses describe the same type of licenses.[13]
The two main categories of free and open-source licenses arepermissive andcopyleft.[14] Both grant permission to change and distribute software. Typically, they requireattribution anddisclaim liability.[15][16] Permissive licenses come from academia.[17] Copyleft licenses come from the free software movement.[18] Copyleft licenses requirederivative works to be distributed with the source code and under a similar license.[15][16] Since the mid-2000s, courts in multiple countries have upheld the terms of both types of license.[19] Software developers have filed cases as copyright infringement and as breaches of contract.[20]
According to the current definition of open content on the OpenContent website, any general, royalty-free copyright license would qualify as an open license because it 'provides users with the right to make more kinds of uses than those normally permitted under the law. These permissions are granted to users free of charge.' However, the narrower definition used in the Open Definition effectively limits open content to libre content. Any free content license, defined by the Definition of Free Cultural Works, would qualify as an open content license.
Prior to 1998, Free Software referred either to the Free Software Foundation (and the watchful, micromanaging eye of Stallman) or to one of thousands of different commercial, avocational, or university-research projects, processes, licenses, and ideologies that had a variety of names: sourceware, freeware, shareware, open software, public domain software, and so on. The term Open Source, by contrast, sought to encompass them all in one movement.
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