{"id":288,"date":"2017-02-02T11:24:06","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T18:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/ccc\/?page_id=288"},"modified":"2017-07-28T11:59:08","modified_gmt":"2017-07-28T18:59:08","slug":"common-knowledge-copyleft-and-the-open-source-encyclopedia","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/ccc\/educationknowledge\/common-knowledge-copyleft-and-the-open-source-encyclopedia\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Knowledge: Free Software and Copyleft"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/h2>\n
\"Copyleft<\/a>
Copyleft symbol, as opposed to Copyright. (Credit: wikimedia)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Joseph Thayer<\/h2>\n

In 1976, Bill Gates published \u201cAn Open Letter to Hobbyists,” claiming that much of the software being used on personal computers was stolen, and those who used the software were thieves. These thieves, he claimed, and all who benefited from them, were preventing good software from being introduced into the world by limiting the ability of the software companies to pay programmers to write software (Gates).<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of the \u201cthievery\u201d described by Gates in 1976 might have simply been piracy, but soon people started writing their own code and publishing it under generous licenses that allowed for free modification and distribution. Under the banner of Free\/Open Source Software (FOSS), independent programmers and software users contributing to and freely distributing operating systems and other programs posed a significant threat to Microsoft monopolies, and Companies facing out-competition by Microsoft threw their code onto the Open Source pyre to be resurrected as ghosts that haunt proprietary software to this day. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ideology<\/h2>\n
\"Mascots
Mascots of FSF Projects and “Messengers of Free Software” (Credit: GNU)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/b>There are two organizations representing different philosophies behind FOSS, or sometimes FLOSS (Free\/Libre\/Open Source Software). In fact, the acronym, F\/OSS, is a representation of the converging ideologies. Free Software is not necessarily the same as Open Source software. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Both factions believe that the \u201cSource Code\u201d should be freely accessible for those who might want to learn from it, and open to modification and distribution with minimal legal entanglements.<\/span> Proponents of Free or Libre software believe that software should never be proprietary, that once written, software should be as freely accessible as technically possible and always put the liberty of the user ahead of the wishes of the developer. Open Source software enthusiasts put no restrictions on what developers can do with software, only that it be open to study and modification.
\n <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"This
This is an example of Source Code, this can be easily read and modified with relatively little experience<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Source code is code written directly by human programmers in a text editor, as seen to the left. The Source code is then put into a compiler which translates the source code into machine code that can be read by computers. Source code, while technical, is fairly readable by human beings, and generally has comments that explain parts of the code which <\/span><\/span>might not make immediate sense. Machine code is not readable by human beings, and for this reason cannot be practically understood. Proprietary software generally is distributed only in machine code to protect the technology from being copied or emulated in a way that would break the copyright.<\/p>\n

\"This
This is hexadecimal machine code, it is not practical for humans to read. Credit Wikimedia<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the 1970s and ’80s, Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), performed massive feats of mostly independent programming in order to develop pieces of software that were powerful software tools and free for people to use, modify to fit their needs, and to freely distribute modified or original versions. Especially important was freedom from proprietary licensing that restricted the use and modification of software. Ideological determination along with free distribution and modification led to the development of the GNU (GNU’s Not Unix) software system, a base and inspiration for much of the world\u2019s current FOSS. Intense belief in the social good that Free Software could bring led to Stallman\u2019s creation of the Free Software Foundation. The FSF\u2019s work is guided by four principles, the \u201cFour Freedoms\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n