The license embodies the Free Software Foundation's "copyleft" rule, which means that anyone is allowed to make changes or extend the source code and redistribute it as long as the changes are clearly ...

The new version of the GNU software license, which will be nailed down during a two-year modification process, will be called GPLv3. A first stab at the new license, dubbed a discussion draft, will be ...

The GNU Public License (GPL) is probably the most famous contract to come out of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). It was adopted by Linus Torvalds for his Linux operating system, and in turn by ...

A GNU license for developers who make their software available to users on network servers. The Affero GPL includes a provision that enables developers to download the source code. It was created to ...

The GNU General Public License (GPL) is a free software license that was devised by GNU founder Richard Stallman. The license guarantees recipients of covered software the right to use, study, modify, ...

For companies that build equipment like CNC machines or lasercutters, it’s tempting to use open-source software in a lot of areas. After all, it’s stable, featureful, and has typically passed the test ...

Alfresco, SpringSource, Signavio, and Camunda have launched an open source project under the permissive Apache 2.0 license, spawned mainly by prospective Alfresco OEM partners’ weariness of GNU Lesser ...

Would you believe that almost all of the technology you use today is here because of a misbehaving printer? Believe it. In the early 1980s, an MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory programmer named ...

“Free software” is a term that’s often used interchangeably with “open source,” and often understood simply to mean software that is obtained without charge. However, the idea of free software is ...

COMMENTARY--In last week's column, I asked why BSD-licensed operating systems didn't seem to be attracting as many corporate supporters and programmers as the GNU GPL-based Linux. Why does it appear ...