A reaction paper: Copyleft

A Copyleft license gives permission and freedom to a person who has a copy of a work to freely as long as it is distributed under the same Copyleft license terms. One can:

1) Reproduce

2) Adapt

3) Modify

With the recent splash of laws and rights protecting the authenticity and privacy of content on the internet, copyleft seems to be a safe bet. Let’s understand why.

People do not really bother about the origin of information, as long as it is available to them and they can modify it according to their convenience. An item being available on the internet for downloading is nothing unusual and such a process is convenient which Copyleft aids.

Copyright being the better, less expensive and more successful alternative to copyleft and is being greatly practiced by fields like software, documents, music, art, history, science, culture studies and literature. This works in the interest of human mankind as there is no need to tightly secure such information in proprietary format.

With such a system the middle man cannot take advantage as the modified program will not be provided rights the original manufacturer wanted him to have. It is a transparent system of functioning. But one has to make sure the original author of the product should not have a conflict with its future users.

It also curbs the problem of piracy in huge way as the content is available free to people in a legal way.  It gives them a healthy choice of options to choose from as opposed to pirated and unauthentic versions of software etc. The backlash to this is that not everyone will explore different sources, leaving those left out to less exposure.

Copyleft helps the information stay in a public domain which students and professionals can take advantage of. One can simply access the information from the original website without going through the grueling and risky process of downloading a pirated version. Also copyleft content can be used as references without having to link out-side of a website.

With the rise of competition from many other companies who provide similar information, Copyleft helps in giving them exposure it deserves in a legal format on the same platform.

Also, some websites charge for the content or item published which generates income for the company and government at the same time keeping keep the consulting fees lower as compared to proprietary software.  This benefits both the parties involved.

A great amount of promotion and free publicity on the World Wide Web can be experimented by virtue of this law. However, due to the complexities and legalities involved in this process, many companies shy away from it.

Even when it comes to the matter of use one can modify the software according to the needs of the company and can also distribute it. The only glitch in this process is that one cannot claim it as its own and the source code needs to be attached when distributed.

Thus, there are more advantages of using Copyleft and distributing one’s hard work (probably for a fee) for general interest of human knowledge as compared to suing those who violate Copyright law.