GNU GPL: License to Software Freedom by Ata ur Rehman

1. GNU GPL:
LICENSE TO SOFTWARE FREEDOM
ATA UR REHMAN
MANAGER SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION,
NATIONAL CENTRE FOR PHYSICS, ISLAMABAD
One Day Seminar on “Changing Role of Library Information Professionals Using
Innovative Cutting-EdgeTechnologies” – January 20, 2018 – CIIT, Islamabad

2. INTRODUCTION
 License (Definition)
 a : permission to act OR b : freedom of action
 Software License
 A software license is a legal instrument governing the use or redistribution of software
 Types of Software Licenses
 Proprietary license
 End User License Agreement (EULA)
 Public License

3. INTRODUCTION (CONT..)
 Workstation licenses
 Perpetual licenses
 Non-Perpetual licenses
 License with Maintenance
Richard Stallman: Founder of FSF and GNU

4. FSF: LICENSE CATEGORIES
 Free licenses, compatible with GNU GPL
 Free licenses, compatible with FDL
 Free licenses, incompatible with GPL and FDL
 Non-free licenses
 Licenses for works stating a viewpoint

5. OSI: POPULAR AND WIDELY USED LICENSES
 Apache License 2.0 (Apache-2.0)
 3-clause BSD license (BSD-3-Clause)
 2-clause BSD license (BSD-2-Clause)
 GNU General Public License (GPL)
 GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
 MIT license (MIT)
 Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL-2.0)
 Common Development and Distribution License version 1.0 (CDDL-1.0)
 Eclipse Public License version 2.0

6. GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE - GPL
 Richard Stallman created its first version (GPL v.1) in Feb 1989 for GNU project
 As per philosophy of FSF, it provides the following freedoms for software usage which
are released under GPL:
 Freedom 0: Run it
 Freedom1: Redistribute it
 Freedom 2: Change it
 Freedom 3: Redistribute it with changes

7. GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE – GPL (CONT..)
 GPL v. 2 released on June 1991
 GPL v. 3 released on June 2007
 Currently GPL is being used by half of Free and Open Source Software

8. SOFTWARE USING GPL
 Linux (Debian, Slackware, etc.)
 Open Journal System (OJS)
 LibreOffice
 Koha
 DSpace
 Greenstone Digital Library System

9. www.facebook.com/ataurrehman
ata.rehman@gmail.com
www.twitter.com/ataurrehman
QUESTIONS
9

10. THANKS