Free-software license

A free-software license 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 license is free software (or free and open-source software) as conferred by the copyright holder. Free-software licenses are applied to software in source code and also binary object-code form, as the copyright law recognizes both forms.^[2]

^ Wheeler, David A. (2015). "The fight for freedom". Archived from the original on 4 July 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
^ Hancock, Terry (29 August 2008). "What if copyright didn't apply to binary executables?". Free Software Magazine. Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2016.

[1] Wheeler, David A. (2015). "The fight for freedom". Archived from the original on 4 July 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2016.

[fsm-2] Hancock, Terry (29 August 2008). "What if copyright didn't apply to binary executables?". Free Software Magazine. Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2016.

[1]

[2]