Copyright & Software Licences
Copyright protects the people who create software and digital content. This lesson covers software piracy and the main types of software licence: proprietary (commercial), free and open-source, and shareware, along with digital rights management.
Key terms
- Copyright
- Legal protection giving the creator of an original work the exclusive right to copy, distribute and adapt it.
- Software piracy
- Copying, sharing or using software without permission or the correct licence.
- Software licence
- A legal agreement that sets out how software may be used.
- Commercial (proprietary) software
- Software owned by a company that sells it. Its source code is not shared and use is restricted.
- Free software
- Software users are free to run, study, change and redistribute, as defined by the Free Software Foundation.
- Open-source software
- Software whose source code is publicly available to view, modify and share.
- Shareware
- Software you can try for free for a limited time or with limited features before paying.
- Freeware
- Software that is free to use, but whose source code is not normally available and may not be changed.
- Digital rights management (DRM)
- Technology that controls how digital content can be used, copied or shared, to enforce copyright.
Part of Ethics and Ownership.