What’s in a Free Software License?

“‘Open source’ is a hot buzzword today. It’s important to
understand free software is still subject to a license just like
conventional shrinkwrapped packages. The big difference is these
licenses convey rights which can’t be revoked. Here’s what they
mean for programmers and for end users.

“To begin with, it has to be understood free software is free as
in free speech. When we say software is free, we speak of liberty
and the rights of the user. Ironically, price isn’t even an issue
in free software; there is generally no stated requirement for free
software to be free of charge–but this is simply moot as we will
show…”

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