[Glastonbury] My CUPS floweth not ...

[Ian Dickinson]

Kelvin McNulty <kelvin24 at gcircle.co.uk> wrote: 
> quite easy to install... and it came up straightaway
> and said Copyright 
> 1993-2002 Easy Software Products - so is NOT open
> source... it is, after all, 
> the Common UNIX Printing System...
Open source and copyright are not the same thing.
Afaik, *all* creative works are automatically
copyright to the creator - it's a so-called moral
right that you just have.  Failing to put (c) /author/
/date/ _doens't_ mean that a work is not copyrighted,
though it can make it harder to argue if you get into
a legal dispute, which is why the copyright owner is
generally encouraged to assert it publicly.

Given that you have the rights to a work, you can
license it to other people to use.  Some licenses are
very closed, and require payment etc. Some are
free-to-use but still closed (hence "free as in free
beer"). Some are very open - you are given permission
from the creator to take the work and do stuff with
it, including modify it, pass it on to others, derive
works from it, etc, hence "free as in freedom".

Think of it this way: if you were to write a book, *I*
can't open-source your book and give it away free
because I don't own the copyright.  But you can if you
choose.  So having the copyright is not antithetical
to open source.  It is, in my understanding, a
pre-requisite.

That's the blue touch paper lit then, ...

Ian
(nb IANAL)



		
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