View source for Free software license

A '''free software licence''' is a notice that grants the recipient of a piece of [[software]] extensive rights to modify and redistribute that software.

These actions are usually prohibited by copyright law, but the rights-holder (usually the author) of a piece of software can remove these restrictions by accompanying the software with a software license which grants the recipient these rights.

Software using such a licence is free software as conferred by the copyright holder.

== Copyleft ==

Some free software licenses include "copyleft" provisions which require all future versions to also be distributed with these freedoms. Other, "permissive", free software licenses are usually just a few lines containing the grant of rights and a disclaimer of warranty, thus also allowing distributors to add restrictions for further recipients.

== GNU ==

The most widely used free software license is the GNU General Public License.

== External links ==

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software_license Free software license] @ Wikipedia