copyleft

noun, verb — 3 senses

copyleft

noun

Etymology A pun on copyright, which refers to using copyright laws for purposes that are in some ways contrary to copyright's original intent.

1

Usually The philosophy of using copyrights to enforce freedom of information, especially software source code.

  • They believe in copyleft because they want their software to be used freely by anyone.
2

Usually A software license that follows this philosophy.

  • I have placed my program under copyleft.
  • The GNU General Public License is a copyleft licence.
Derived terms
copyleftist, copyleft symbol, strong copyleft, weak copyleft

copyleft

verb

Etymology A pun on copyright, which refers to using copyright laws for purposes that are in some ways contrary to copyright's original intent.

1

To license under a copyleft license.

  • Linus Torvalds copylefted the Linux kernel.
Related terms
🄯

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.