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The vast majority of copyleft licenses satisfy both definitions, that of the Free Software Definition and Open Source Definition. [7] By guaranteeing viewers and users of a work the freedom and permission to reproduce, adapt , or distribute it, copyleft licenses are distinct from other types of copyright licenses that limit such freedoms.
There are licenses accepted by the OSI which are not free as per the Free Software Definition. The Open Source Definition allows for further restrictions like price, type of contribution and origin of the contribution, e.g. the case of the NASA Open Source Agreement, which requires the code to be "original" work.
Copyleft or libre share-alike licenses are the largest subcategory of share-alike licenses. They include both free content licenses like Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike and free software licenses like the GNU General Public License .
The GPL was the first copyleft license available for general use. It was originally written by Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), for the GNU Project. The license grants the recipients of a computer program the rights of the Free Software Definition. [8]
SA (share-alike): restriction on freedoms 2 or 3, the copy must distributed under a license identical to the license that governs the original work (see copyleft). ND (Non-derivative): exclusion of freedom 3. NC (Non-commercial): partial exclusion of freedoms 2 and 3 of commercial purposes. Other: other less usual restrictions on "open licenses".
Copyleft is a distinguishing feature of some free software licenses. Many free software licenses are not copyleft licenses because they do not require the licensee to distribute derivative works under the same license. There is an ongoing debate as to which class of license provides the greater degree of freedom.
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Further refinements to these definitions have resulted in categories such as copyleft and permissive. Common examples of free licenses are the GNU General Public License , BSD licenses and some Creative Commons licenses .