Freeware Licensing
Contrary to public belief, freeware is distinct from public domain
software. In fact the word freeware can cover many very different
realities and one should be very careful when using it.
Freeware may just be software that does not cost anything, that you
get for free. One good example is
Microsoft Internet Explorer
that at the date of this writing (Friday July 4th 1997) is available
to anyone a no cost. However its downloading is controlled by
terms of use
that do specify the existence of a Microsoft copyright preventing you
to do as you please with the software. Note that
shareware,
which is not free, always allows disseminating copies (which are
later to be paid for if used, while Microsoft explicitly forbids it
for the "freeware" Internet Explorer.
Public domain software is freeware in the sense that it does not
cost anything and you can do with it whatever you please. Like all
other abstract creations, any software will ultimately be freeware,
when the time-limited protection of its author's rights expires. But
even when software is in the public domain, you may not have source code
available for modification to maintain it or adapt it to new contexts
or new uses. Thus even public domain software may not be as free as
one would think, when free has the meaning associated with freedom,
rather that with absence of cost. Other, more subtle, problems may
arise with public domain software, even when sources are available.
For example, it may be transformed and disseminated without the
source code, without the users realizing (or sometimes too late) that it
needs modification and they cannot modify the version they rely on.
So freeware usually has a copyright, and is often distributed, for
free, with a licence. However this licence is used by many people to
protect the freeness of the software, and especially the free access
to source code for modifications of all kinds.
The purpose of this page is to compile information about freeware
licensing, the various types of licences, and what they try to protect.
If you are aware of other relevant information, please forward it to
the maintainer of this page
Bernard.Lang@inria.fr.
Although this page is mostly about free software, any similar
information about other immaterial free ressources is also
relevant and will be collected here. These include (collections of) icons and pictures,
as well as electronic text and articles or educational resources.
For example, free textual ressources ahve been made available by
organizations such as the Gutenberg project or ABU.
Articles about free resources
Papers have been included in this bibliography for many distinct
reasons. Some directly advocate the development of freeware, some
discuss the use of freeware in various contexts, others develop ideas
about software creation and evolution that may be relevant in a
discussion about freeware (though we have not developped the copyright
legislation aspect).
-
Categories of Free and Non-Free Software
-
The Copyright Grab,
Pamela Samuelson, Wired, 1996.
-
What is Free Software?
-
First Conference on Freely Redistributable Software
(
call for papers
announcement), Cambridge, MA, 3-5 February 1996.
-
Automated Management of an Heterogeneous Distributed
Production Environment (
postscript),
Philippe Defert et al.,
CERN (
ftp)
-
Freely Redistributable Software across the Internet - Current
practice and future directions to overcome the bandwidth crisis,
Neil G. Smith, University of Kent
-
Linux for Research and Teaching of Operating Systems,
Victor Yodaiken,
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology,
available from the author as
Cheap OS research and teaching.
-
Freely Redistributable Instead of Commercial
Software -- Yugoslav Experience,
Radivoje Zonjic, University of Belgrade
-
Linux on the OSF Mach3 micro-kernel,
Francois Barbou des Places,
OSF/Grenoble
(
abstract)
-
Internationalization in the GNU project,
Ulrich Drepper,
University of Karlsruhe, Germany, January 1996
- Free Software vs. the Medical Challenges
of the 1990's,
G.W. Wettstein,
Roger Maris Cancer Center. (cf.
Perceptions)
-
The RPM Packaging System,
Marc Ewing
and
Erik Troan,
Red Hat Software
- Why Should the Value-Added Reseller care about
Free Software?, Rick R. Castrapel and Frank E. Barone
-
Coordinating Joint Cost/No-cost Rights
for Software Developed with SBIR Funding,
Philip A. Wilsey
and
Dale E. Martin,
University of Cincinnati
Licensing Alternatives for Freely
Redistributable Software
(available in
html,
ascii,
framemaker,
postscript,
rtf or
rtf locally corrected)
L. Peter Deutsch,
Aladdin Enterprises
-
The First Free Software Conference
John Regehr,
Linux Journal, N. 25, May 1996.
-
Freely Redistributable Software is Alive and Well
Phil Hughes,
Linux Journal, N. 25, May 1996.
-
First Conference on Freely Redistributable Software:
A Physicist's Report,
Brian Gough,
Computers in Physics, May/June 1996.
-
Second Conference on Freely Redistributable Software
(
call for papers
program
announcement), San Francisco, CA, February 20-21, 1997.
(Canceled)
-
Greg Wettstein's vision
Dr.
G.W. Wettstein,
Oncology Research Division, COmputing Facility,
Roger Maris Cancer Center, 1996.
A view of the future of free software.
-
Perceptions --- An Implementation of a Medical Information
Support Environment with Freely Distributable Software (
ascii),
Greg W. Wettstein Ph.D., Dr.
Paul S.Etzell M.D.,
Oncology Research Division Computing Facility
Roger Maris Cancer Center, Fargo, ND
-
The Cathedral and the Bazaar
(
html
and
ps)
Eric S. Raymond,
Linux Kongress 97 and Atlanta Linux Showcase.
-
Journal version in
First Monday
Vol. 3, Issue 3, March 1998
Die Kathedrale und der Basar, übersetzt von
Lukas Müller,
Linux-Magazin,
August 1987.
La cathédrale et le bazar, traduction française de
Sébastien Blondeel, 16 février 1998.
-
The Economics of Open-Source Software
Eric S. Raymond, February 23rd, 1998.
-
The Value of Free Software,
Jon Udell ,
Byte,
December 1997
-
Lisp: Good News - Bad News - How to Win Big
(other
HTML,,
dvi,
postscript),
Richard P. Gabriel
Lucid, Inc.
-
The Economy of Ideas.,
John Perry Barlow,
Wired, March 1994.
also available as
Selling Wine Without Bottles: The Economy of Mind on the Global Net
- Papers on
Patents and
Copyrights
by
The League for Programming Freedom:
-
Against Software Patents, February 28, 1991
-
Why Patents Are Bad for Software
Simson L. Garfinkel, Richard M. Stallman and Mitchell Kapor,
Issues in Science and Technology, Fall 1991.
-
Against User Interface Copyright, October 20, 1991
-
Three Common Fallacies In the User Interface Copyright Debate,
Thomas M.S. Hemnes Foley Hoag and Eliot, Boston,
The Computer Lawyer, Volume 7, Number 2, February 1990.
-
Patently Absurd
Simson L. Garfinkel,
Wired, July 1994.
Extras from "Patently Absurd",
Simson L. Garfinkel, Wired.
-
Examples of Software Patents
...
-
Studies Find Reward Often No Motivator,
Alfie Kohn, Boston Globe, Monday January 19, 1987.
-
Creativity and intrinsic interest diminish if task is done for gain.
-
more papers on rewards and motivation
-
Free Software Report,
published by Cygnus, 1992-1994.
-
Open Systems, Free Software?, in
SURPRISE 96 Surveys, collection of surveys by students
at Imperial College (UK).
-
Intellectual Property Protection for Computer Software,
Michael Current,
Atari Classics magazine,
Volume 3, Number 1, February 1994
-
Intellectual Value,
Esther Dyson ,
Wired, No. 1.0, December 1994
and
some comments by
Edward Yourdon from a lecture at the 1995 SAG Conference.
-
Programme conferences Journees Linux
2ème journées Linux
-
Linux and Decentralized Development,
Christopher B. Browne
-
GNU'S NOT UNIX, Conducted by David Betz and Jon Edwards,
Richard Stallman discusses his public-domain UNIX-compatible
software system with BYTE editors (July 1986)
-
There's money to be made in freeware,
Dan Gillmor,
San Jose Mercury News, December 12, 1997.
-
It's Still Free Software,
Richard Stallman, February 18, 1998 (e-mail).
[ about the change of terminology from "free software" to
"open source software" ... see also the archives of the "free
software for business" mailing-list below]
-
Critique of the Open Source definition,
Jonathan S. Shapiro, April 21 1998, FSB mailing list.
-
Freed Software Winning Support, Making Waves,
Michael Stutz ,
Wired News
30 January 1998.
-
L'Etat et la micro-informatique
Jean-Paul Smets, 26 february 1998.
Une démarche reposant sur la distribution gratuite des
logiciels et la promotion des normes publiques, dans le but de
dynamiser le marché et de créer des emplois..
Organisations and sites concerned with free resources, licensing or copyright
-
Free Software Foundation (FSF)
: the birth-place of the freeware movement and ...
-
GNU, its first offspring.
-
League for Programming Freedom:
an organization that opposes software patents and user
interface copyrights.
-
Union for the Public Domain
:
a non-profit citizens group, concerned with protecting and
enhancing the public domain in matters concerning intellectual
property. Varied information and reports.
-
Software in the Public Interest:
the incorporated side of Debian's non-profit organization.
-
Open Source :
another terminology for free software,
intended to avoid the confusion with
"without cost".
(formerly
The Economics of Open-Source Software)
Please use a server near you:
Australia
France
Germany
Israel
Japan
Korea
Netherlands
Spain
United States
-
Open Hardware
By certifying a hardware device as Open, the manufacturer makes a set
of promises about the availability of documentation for programming
the device-driver interface of a specific hardware device.
Please use a server near you:
Austria
Australia
France
Germany
Israel
Japan
Korea
Netherlands
Spain
United States
-
OpenContent : to "facilitate the prolific creation of
freely available, high-quality, well-maintained Content. OpenContent
is freely available for modification, use, and redistribution under a
license similar to those used by the Open Source / Free Software
community.
-
AULA SobrE (Software Libre)
-
Free Software Business Archives
a discussion list, its archive, and a few papers.
(alternative URLs:
-- ,
-- ,
-- ,
by
Deja News current
or
old database (search on "mgate.fsb" sorted by date),
or by email
fsb-subscribe@crynwr.com
at Crynwr.
-
linux-biz mailing list : Linux in a business
environment (volume low to medium) -
send a message with
"subscribe your.name@your.domain linux-biz@lege.com"
in the subject line to
linux-biz-request@lege.com :
-
Freely Redistributable Software in Business
-
Freeware Central
and
The Internet Notebook column in
UNIX Review
by Rich Morin (about freeware archives, packages, and related issues)
maintained at the
Prime Time Freeware (PTF) site.
-
Free Software Union (FSU)
-
Free Software Repository:
a web site to collect information on how the free software
community works. It has an
introduction and a
mailing list (managed by
Ben Pfaff and
Ken David).
-
The Richard M. Stallman Shrine
- Don Lancaster's
Patent Avoidance Library
[ For most individuals and small scale startups, patents are virtually
certain to result in a net loss of time, energy, money, and sanity. ]
-
IFLA Information Policy:
Copyright and Intellectual Property
-
Consumer Project on Technology (CPT)
created by Ralph Nader in 1995
:
Public Policy Issues Related to Intellectual Property
-
Hot Property:
comprehensive WWW resource for intellectual property and copyright
law as it applies to electronic media.
-
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
-
The Copyright Website!
:
Introduction to various copyright related issues. Stories and pointers.
-
Cyberspace Law Institute (
alternate)
-
WWW Multimedia Law:
legal resource to interactive media and information commerce.
-
Links to Other Free Software Sites
-
Intellectual & Industrial Property, DG XV at the European Commission.
-
Open Development Consortium (ODC)
Advocacy documents
-
The four phases of Linux acceptance by Evan Leibovitch,
The Xunil Pages.
-
Linuxmanship,
Donald B. Marti Jr., 15 june 1998. -
A very complete set of advice for promotion work
Collection of "freeware" licences from various sources.
The word "freeware" in the title is in double quotes because it
is really not well defined here, covering types of software that range
from very proprietary software requiring no payment (such as Internet
Explorer), to software protected by a Copyleft licence (forbidding
proprietary uses like the GPL) and software with nearly no constraints
associated (BSD copyright).
Copyright and Licences for "free" software
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 15:21:08 -0700
From: "Karsten M. Self" <kmself@ix.netcom.com>
There are a number of existing and proposed license discussion lists,
the Free Software Business list (fsb@crynwr.com) and the GNU
discussion (news:gnu.misc.discuss) being two of the primary ones.
There is another list being organized by Kevin Lenzo at CMU, specific
to dual licensing, IIRC. For general legal guidance there are
news:misc.int-property
and news:misc.legal.computing,
as well as the
CNI Copyright list (http://www.cni.org/Hforums/cni-copyright/) for
copyright-specific discussions. There is some interest in the legal
lists in free software | open source issues
See also
CLWG (Common License Working Group)
- DEC :
pstotext
-
SRC Modula-3 License (Modula-3, Virtual Paper)
-
Microsoft
"terms of use"
http://www.microsoft.com/misc/cpyright.htm
-
IntraStore Server :
The standard
Licence Agreement for 30-day evaluation copy
on proprietary Unix or Windows NT and the
Licence Agreement for Linux
-
Star Division
Star Office
ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/staroffice/LICENCE.TXT.gz
- Linux (
Red Hat)
licences
The BSD Copyright
X Copyright
Gnu Public License
-
Free Software Foundation (FSF)
and
GNU
:
Copyleft licences
GNU General Public License
GNU Library General Public License
-
Debian licence
Debian
SocialContract and Free Software Guidelines
-
BSD style license.
-
The
Perl
"Artistic License".
-
The Caml language
INRIA copyright notice
Objective Caml
-
Xanim,
Mark Podlipec
(see
Is XAnim Free?)
Copyright and Licence agreement
-
Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks (SATAN)
Copyright
-
The XFree86 Project, Inc.
:
XFree86 Copyright
X Consortium
Berkeley-based copyrights
NVidia Corp
-
Enterprise Integration Technologies (EIT)
:
EIT Freeware Licensing FAQ
SWISH License Agreement
SWISH Commercial Distribution Agreement
(click one button at bottom)
-
Silicon Graphics and
:
HylaFAX Use and Copyright ,
Sam Leffler, Mai 1995
-
Aladdin Enterprises
:
Aladdin Ghostscript
(by
ftp)
Aladdin Ghostscript Free Public License:
FPL v2 August 1994,
GSVIEW FPL v3 August 1995
and
FPL v4 March 1995
(see also
paper
from First Conference on Freely Redistributable Software)
-
Licence INRIA pour la diffusion de logiciels sur internet.
-
MTL and
University of Cincinnati
:
Standard Analyzer of VHDL Applications for
Next-generation Technology (SAVANT)
licence agreement
(see also
paper
from First Conference on Freely Redistributable Software)
-
Troll Tech proposes the
Qt GUI toolkit with 2 distinct licences:
professional and
free software. (see also the
FAQ and
Free Edition FAQ)
-
BSCW
Software
Copyright Notice
GMD copyright for BSCW (Basic Support for Cooperative Work),
European Software Innovation Prize 1996
(ESIP'96).
-
Traduction française de quelques licences par
René Cougnenc et Manuel Makarévitch
(GPL 1991, BSD, X, DEC).
-
Patrick Cipiere's
Pcache freeware
Copyright Notice
-
License Agreement for the
MiscKit, a set of programming resources donated by
various Internet personalities for the benefit of other NEXTSTEP programmers.
-
An interesting case:
Kaffe is available under 2 licences, either free under the
GPL, or a more standard licence for "Kaffe OpenVM Custom Edition".
But the custom edition is faster and more portable
-
The
OpenContent License (OPL) developed by
OPENCONTENT aims to be the equivalent for content of the
GPL for software. However, it seems to forbid commercial activities
such as maintenance, and does not protect against database
legislation.
-
OpenBSD Copyright Policy
-
The
Jini Technology Public License (JTPL) proposed by
Sun Microsystems
is not an open-source license in Open Source Definition terms
(nor does Sun claim it is), but it is definitely worth checking out if
you're interested in how Sun is trying to implement a more open
strategy for Jini compared to Java [fsb: From: hecker@netscape.com
(Frank Hecker), Wed Sep 23 01:28:19 1998]
-
MIT Jonah PKIX Freeware
licence. PHIX was developped by
Iris Associates,
100% subsidiary of
Lotus,
100% subsidiary of
IBM.
-
licence for the
Foundation Suites cryptographic toolkit
developed by
Cylink
(available only in the US: crypto restrictions)
-
Apple Public Source License, Version 1.0 - March 16, 1999
used for Darwin, which is a
complete Open Source operating system based
on the foundation layers for Mac OS X Server.
-
IBM Public License Version 1.0 - JIKES compiler. Actually
IBM went through a
history of 2 other licences
before producing the final one.
- About GPL and Trademark,
AbiSource's solution:
Trademark Usage Guidelines and the
"personal version"
- The
AT&T SOURCE CODE AGREEMENT license, Version 1.0
is apparently presented as an open source for the DjVu Reference Library.
However, I wonder whether article 4.1 is really compatible with Open Source
definition.
-
Enhydra is releasing their Enhydra Server under the
EPL,
which is apparently based off of the MozPL 1.0. See the
presentation, and the
discussion.
-
S/MIME Freeware Library (SFL) public license (12 March
1999), for the ew MSP-enhanced S/MIME security protocol(S/MIME Version 3).
-
Copyright and Licences for "free" Text and Documents
-
Linux Documentation Project
:
Linux Documentation Project Copying License
Manifesto
-
Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc. (SSC)
:
Linux Journal FAQ June 1997
Linux Journal Copyright Notice
Linux Gazette
http://www.ssc.com/lg/ssc.copying.html
-
Enterprise Integration Technologies (EIT)
:
EIT Site Copyright
-
Glossary of Oceanography and the Related Geoscience,
Steven K. Baum, Janvier 1997
:
Preface (copyright at bottom)
-
Wired Ventures, Inc.
:
Wired Copyright Notice
-
Delorie Software
Copyright © 1997 DJ Delorie
-
Project Gutenberg
:
Information about Project Gutenberg
as heading of a sample electronic text.
-
Aladdin Enterprises
and ISOC (IESG)
:
Request for Comments: 1950
-
PC/TCP Packet Driver Specification from FTP Software, Inc.,
found at
Crynwr Software
-
Principia Informatica, no identifiable
author, though he is said to be
William Sheridan
-
Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
Licensing Information
-
The Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation
SPEC Copyright Notice
-
First Monday :
the first peer-reviewed journals on the Internet, about the Internet,
with free personal copy, but no distribution
copyright.
-
Les Humains Associés donne l'autorisation de reproduire
leurs textes et images sous certaines conditions définies par:
Du bon usage de la gratuité
-
OpenContent License
-
GNU Free Documentation License
Various Payware Licences
Some of these licences also appear as freeware licences (for example
the Star Office licence) because they are free for some categories of
users, usually educational, research and/or not-for-profit
organizations, and they are at cost for other users.
Copyright and Licences for Commercial Software
-
TIS Firewall Toolkit License (FWTK): a licence with modifiable source,
non transferable, free for private use.
-
Star Division
Star Office
ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/staroffice/LICENCE.TXT.gz
-
BOCHS
X86 PC Emulation
Software License
Commercial licence with source code available
-
-
Copyright and Licences for Commercial Data and/or Documents
A useful site to consult on this topic is the
Liblicence
web site at
Yale, or its
French mirror at
enssib.
-
The Oklahoma Mesonet at
Oklahoma Climatological Survey (OCS)
:
Licence for data given to subscribers(local copy)
-
IBM Intellectual Property and Licensing Homepage :
includes also patent licensing.
Software patents
A useful site to consult on this topic is the
Free Patents
web site. There are several other good sites accessible from there.
We give here only a few pointers
-
Brevets - la Commission adopte un Livre Vert avec le
document complet en pdf.
Patents - Commission approves Green Paper with the
full document in pdf.
-
Brevets: la Commission expose les grandes lignes d'un plan de mesures ambitieux avec le
document complet en pdf.
Patents: Commission outlines ambitious series of measures with the
full document in pdf.
-
Proposition modifiée de directive pour la protection des inventions par le modèle d'utilité avec le
document complet en pdf.
Amended proposal for a Directive on the protection of inventions by utility model with the
full document in pdf.
- Though it is apparently supporting software patents, the European
Commission is now showing interest in open source and Linux. Harbinger
for a change in policies ?
See the
page of ISTAG
(the IST Programme Advisory Group) and their draft of the
Orientations for Workprogramme 2000 and beyond.
benchmarks
-
licences
-
usage
-
abuse
-
text
-
advocacy
-
shareware
-
freeware sources
-
main
-
français
-
papers
Le contenu de ces pages relève de la seule
responsabilité de leurs auteurs, et ne représente pas
le point de vue officiel de l'INRIA. Les
informations sont présentées de bonne foi, mais leur
exactitude ne saurait être garantie.
All documents are under the responsibility of their authors, and do
not represent the official views of INRIA. The information
is given in good faith, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed.