Do permissive or copyleft licenses have a limited term based on US copyright law?
If you write a book, the copyright for that work is protected for a long time, but the work will eventually enter the public domain under US copyright law. Does the same thing apply to pieces of software released under a permissive open source license? Would software released under a BSD, GPL, or MIT license automatically enter the public domain at some point in the future? I know that copyright law changes frequently and retroactively, I'm just curious about how the current laws would apply.
licensing copyright law
asked Apr 20 at 4:22
IvannaIvanna
1161
New contributor
Ivanna is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
If you write a book, the copyright for that work is protected for a long time, but the work will eventually enter the public domain under US copyright law. Does the same thing apply to pieces of software released under a permissive open source license? Would software released under a BSD, GPL, or MIT license automatically enter the public domain at some point in the future? I know that copyright law changes frequently and retroactively, I'm just curious about how the current laws would apply.
licensing copyright law
asked Apr 20 at 4:22
IvannaIvanna
1161
New contributor
Ivanna is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
If you write a book, the copyright for that work is protected for a long time, but the work will eventually enter the public domain under US copyright law. Does the same thing apply to pieces of software released under a permissive open source license? Would software released under a BSD, GPL, or MIT license automatically enter the public domain at some point in the future? I know that copyright law changes frequently and retroactively, I'm just curious about how the current laws would apply.
licensing copyright law
asked Apr 20 at 4:22
IvannaIvanna
1161
New contributor
Ivanna is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
If you write a book, the copyright for that work is protected for a long time, but the work will eventually enter the public domain under US copyright law. Does the same thing apply to pieces of software released under a permissive open source license? Would software released under a BSD, GPL, or MIT license automatically enter the public domain at some point in the future? I know that copyright law changes frequently and retroactively, I'm just curious about how the current laws would apply.
licensing copyright law
licensing copyright law
asked Apr 20 at 4:22
IvannaIvanna
1161
New contributor
Ivanna is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked Apr 20 at 4:22
IvannaIvanna
1161
New contributor
Ivanna is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked Apr 20 at 4:22
IvannaIvanna
1161
New contributor
Ivanna is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked Apr 20 at 4:22
IvannaIvanna
1161
asked Apr 20 at 4:22
IvannaIvanna
1161
1161
New contributor
Ivanna is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Ivanna is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Ivanna is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
Theoretically, the license itself is not time-limited - once the code has been released under any of the MIT, BSD, GPL or Apache licenses, it is available under that license in perpetuity. If 200 years from now you wanted to distribute the source to version 5.0 of the Linux kernel via the GPL, you could.
However, when the copyright expires (70 years after the death of the author or whatever), everybody gets the ability to distribute the code however they like so they would no longer be required to follow the GPL, any other open source license, or for that matter any proprietary license. Open source licenses rely on copyright law for their effectiveness just as much as proprietary licenses do, and they all cease to be effective when the copyright protection expires.
answered Apr 20 at 7:40
Philip KendallPhilip Kendall
1,946412
Something happened with my edit. Only CC0 (maybe "unlicense" too) isn't proprietary license, all the others are. Also, you can contrast open source with closed source but not with proprietary, since they are both proprietary.
– Smart455
Apr 21 at 19:30
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "619"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Ivanna is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fopensource.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f8206%2fdo-permissive-or-copyleft-licenses-have-a-limited-term-based-on-us-copyright-law%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Theoretically, the license itself is not time-limited - once the code has been released under any of the MIT, BSD, GPL or Apache licenses, it is available under that license in perpetuity. If 200 years from now you wanted to distribute the source to version 5.0 of the Linux kernel via the GPL, you could.
However, when the copyright expires (70 years after the death of the author or whatever), everybody gets the ability to distribute the code however they like so they would no longer be required to follow the GPL, any other open source license, or for that matter any proprietary license. Open source licenses rely on copyright law for their effectiveness just as much as proprietary licenses do, and they all cease to be effective when the copyright protection expires.
answered Apr 20 at 7:40
Philip KendallPhilip Kendall
1,946412
Something happened with my edit. Only CC0 (maybe "unlicense" too) isn't proprietary license, all the others are. Also, you can contrast open source with closed source but not with proprietary, since they are both proprietary.
– Smart455
Apr 21 at 19:30
add a comment |
Theoretically, the license itself is not time-limited - once the code has been released under any of the MIT, BSD, GPL or Apache licenses, it is available under that license in perpetuity. If 200 years from now you wanted to distribute the source to version 5.0 of the Linux kernel via the GPL, you could.
However, when the copyright expires (70 years after the death of the author or whatever), everybody gets the ability to distribute the code however they like so they would no longer be required to follow the GPL, any other open source license, or for that matter any proprietary license. Open source licenses rely on copyright law for their effectiveness just as much as proprietary licenses do, and they all cease to be effective when the copyright protection expires.
answered Apr 20 at 7:40
Philip KendallPhilip Kendall
1,946412
Something happened with my edit. Only CC0 (maybe "unlicense" too) isn't proprietary license, all the others are. Also, you can contrast open source with closed source but not with proprietary, since they are both proprietary.
– Smart455
Apr 21 at 19:30
add a comment |
Theoretically, the license itself is not time-limited - once the code has been released under any of the MIT, BSD, GPL or Apache licenses, it is available under that license in perpetuity. If 200 years from now you wanted to distribute the source to version 5.0 of the Linux kernel via the GPL, you could.
However, when the copyright expires (70 years after the death of the author or whatever), everybody gets the ability to distribute the code however they like so they would no longer be required to follow the GPL, any other open source license, or for that matter any proprietary license. Open source licenses rely on copyright law for their effectiveness just as much as proprietary licenses do, and they all cease to be effective when the copyright protection expires.
answered Apr 20 at 7:40
Philip KendallPhilip Kendall
1,946412
Theoretically, the license itself is not time-limited - once the code has been released under any of the MIT, BSD, GPL or Apache licenses, it is available under that license in perpetuity. If 200 years from now you wanted to distribute the source to version 5.0 of the Linux kernel via the GPL, you could.
However, when the copyright expires (70 years after the death of the author or whatever), everybody gets the ability to distribute the code however they like so they would no longer be required to follow the GPL, any other open source license, or for that matter any proprietary license. Open source licenses rely on copyright law for their effectiveness just as much as proprietary licenses do, and they all cease to be effective when the copyright protection expires.
answered Apr 20 at 7:40
Philip KendallPhilip Kendall
1,946412
answered Apr 20 at 7:40
Philip KendallPhilip Kendall
1,946412
answered Apr 20 at 7:40
Philip KendallPhilip Kendall
1,946412
answered Apr 20 at 7:40
Philip KendallPhilip Kendall
1,946412
1,946412
Something happened with my edit. Only CC0 (maybe "unlicense" too) isn't proprietary license, all the others are. Also, you can contrast open source with closed source but not with proprietary, since they are both proprietary.
– Smart455
Apr 21 at 19:30
add a comment |
Something happened with my edit. Only CC0 (maybe "unlicense" too) isn't proprietary license, all the others are. Also, you can contrast open source with closed source but not with proprietary, since they are both proprietary.
– Smart455
Apr 21 at 19:30
Something happened with my edit. Only CC0 (maybe "unlicense" too) isn't proprietary license, all the others are. Also, you can contrast open source with closed source but not with proprietary, since they are both proprietary.
– Smart455
Apr 21 at 19:30
Something happened with my edit. Only CC0 (maybe "unlicense" too) isn't proprietary license, all the others are. Also, you can contrast open source with closed source but not with proprietary, since they are both proprietary.
– Smart455
Apr 21 at 19:30
add a comment |
Ivanna is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Ivanna is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Ivanna is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Ivanna is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Thanks for contributing an answer to Open Source Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fopensource.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f8206%2fdo-permissive-or-copyleft-licenses-have-a-limited-term-based-on-us-copyright-law%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
