nashvilleple.blogg.se

One major problem with proprietary software is that you can't fix bugs or customize it, since the source code is not available. People take great pride in their work and don't want others to remove their names from the credits or even claim they wrote it themselves.

The authorship's identity must be protected.

In this case, use of the code is seen as a trust: you may use it, as long as you play by the same rules. Since they release their software so that everyone may use it, they don't want to see others steal it.

It's not allowed to use their code in proprietary software.

The other hand, are mostly looking for different rules, sometimes even Release only compiled code which isn't human readable. SoftwareĬompanies are looking for ways to protect their assets, so they often Of course, different circumstances call for different licenses. It's up to the author to include a license which declares how a Or her creation (software in this case), in ways that are acceptable to A license is the author's way of allowing others to use his In most countries, newly written software is automaticallyĬopyrighted. Imply when they speak about free software, let's take a little detourĪnd enter the world of software licenses.Ĭopyrights are one method of protecting the creators' rights of certain Is much more complicated than that, though.

To the uninitiated, software is either free or it isn't. Guarantee that it will stay free of charge. Product or to drive a smaller competitor out of business. No cost is usually a weapon in a marketing campaign to promote a related Pay for it, is hardly free at all, You may be forbidden to pass it on,Īnd you're most certainly not allowed to modify it. Software described as free, but only in the sense that you don't need to So, when we speak ofįree Software, we mean freedom, not payment. Rest refer to "liberty" and "lack of constraint". If you look at an English dictionary, it lists almost twentyĭifferent meanings for "free", and only one of them is "at no cost". It isn't used the way they expect – "free" means "free of cost" Many people new to this subject are confused because of the word The terminology debate reflects the underlying philosophical differences, but the practical requirements as well as other things discussed on this site are essentially the same for Free Software and Open Source Software. In February 1998, a group of people moved to replace the term Free Software with Open Source Software.