Copyright vs. CopyleftLibre Documentation ExplainedPrevNext3. Copyright vs. Copyleft

Copyrights exist in order to protect authors of documentation or software from<br>unauthorized copying or selling of their work. A copyright infers that only with the author's permission may such activities take place.

A Copyleft, on the other hand, provides a method for software or documentation<br>to be modified, and distributed back to the community, provided it remains<br>Libre.

In the case of Libre Documentation, an author can place his or her copyright<br>into the document, and use distribution terms, such as those in the GNU Free<br>Documentation License, which gives everyone the rights to use, modify, and<br>redistribute the code, but only if those distribution terms remain unchanged.<br>This ensures that the source code and the freedoms are legally inseparable. This is known as "copyleft".

If a program or document was uncopyrighted and in the public domain, changes<br>could be made and the program or document could be re-distributed as a<br>proprietary product. The copyleft ensures that not only is the original source<br>free, but that all modifications must be made free, and permission is granted<br>for all who follow in modifying that same program or document, provided they<br>abide by these terms.

Applying a free software or free documentation license to an application or<br>document qualifies the product as Libre, and protects the open source community at large from it becoming commercial or proprietary.

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