[pct-l] Re: copyleft, WAS: Carrot DVD Copies

[hiker at godlikebuthumble.com (Hiker)]

At 12:46 AM 5/17/05, Kraig Mottar wrote:
>I got the DVD, will let you know my thoughts after I watch it.
>Please correct me if I say anything that is incorrect. Weather Carrot made 
>it, doesn't want to copyright it because he wants to distribute it free. 
>But I think I saw he has wishes about what people might do to it. You 
>might consider a copyleft. I believe you can learn more about this at 
>www.copyleft.com.

Bad URL. Try this one http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html
===========
---->excerpt

The simplest way to make a program free software is to put it in the public 
domain, uncopyrighted. This allows people to share the program and their 
improvements, if they are so minded. But it also allows uncooperative 
people to convert the program into proprietary software. They can make 
changes, many or few, and distribute the result as a proprietary product. 
People who receive the program in that modified form do not have the 
freedom that the original author gave them; the middleman has stripped it 
away.

[snip]

To copyleft a program, we first state that it is copyrighted; then we add 
distribution terms, which are a legal instrument that gives everyone the 
rights to use, modify, and redistribute the program's code or any program 
derived from it but only if the distribution terms are unchanged. Thus, the 
code and the freedoms become legally inseparable.

Proprietary software developers use copyright to take away the users' 
freedom; we use copyright to guarantee their freedom. That's why we reverse 
the name, changing ``copyright'' into ``copyleft.''