The Gift that Keeps on Giving – Distribution and Copyleft in Open Source Software License

Heather Meeker

Abstract


Copyleft obligations in licenses like GPL version 2 are triggered by "distribution," but what exactly does that means?  This article examines the question of what constitutes distribution under U.S. copyright law, and how that question plays out in complex business settings where free software thrives today.

Keywords


Law, information technology, Free and Open Source Software, GNU General Public License, distribution, US Law, distribution

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