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copyleft.org
 
============
 

	
 
## What is Copyleft?
 

	
 
Copyleft is a strategy of utilizing copyright law to pursue the policy goal
 
of fostering, encouraging the equal and inalienable right to copy, share,
 
modify and improve creative works of authorship.  Copyleft (as a general
 
term) describes any method that utilizes the copyright system to achieve the
 
aforementioned goal.  Copyleft as a concept is usually implemented in the
 
details of a specific copyright license, such as the GNU
 
[General Public License](http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html) and the
 
[Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
 
Copyright holders of creative work can choose and implement these licenses
 
for their own works unilaterally to build communities that share those
 
creative works. 
 

	
 
## What is copyleft.org?
 

	
 
copyleft.org is a collaborative project to create and disseminate useful
 
information, tutorial material, and new policy ideas regarding all forms of
 
copyleft licensing.
 

	
 
### The Copyleft Guide and Tutorial
 

	
 
The primary project currently on this site is a tutorial book entitled
 
[*Copyleft and the GNU General Public License: A Comprehensive Guide and Tutorial*](/guide/).
 
This guide describes the policy motivations for copyleft, presents a detailed analysis of the text of
 
various copyleft licenses, and gives examples and case studies of copyleft compliance situations.
 

	
 
### Getting Involved
 

	
 
There are various ways to get involved with this project.  The primary
 
copyleft.org website is a wiki, and we welcome helpful edits and additions.
 

	
 
For the aforementioned guide and tutorial about GPL and other copyleft concepts,
 
we seek help in the following ways:
 

	
 
#### Proposing Improvements to the Guide
 

	
 
[Merge requests on copyleft.org's gitorious site](https://gitorious.org/copyleft-org/tutorial/merge_requests)
 
to the Guide are most welcome. If you're looking for something to fix, just
 
grep the *.tex files for "FIXME" and you'll find plenty.  Many of them are
...
 
@@ -52,30 +68,32 @@ to see who has contributed to it, and
 
[[see the list of users who contribute to this Wiki|users]].
 

	
 
### URLs You Can Memorize!
 

	
 
copyleft.org has many easy-to-remember URLs.  These are convenience URLs that
 
you can memorize and give to people verbally to point them to the right part
 
of [The Guide](https://copyleft.org/guide/).  (Since the guide is very large,
 
we thought a few easy-to-remember ways to tell people where to look would be
 
helpful.)  Here are the primary ones:
 

	
 
  * [copyleft.org](https://copyleft.org) points to this page.
 
  * [copyleft.guide](http://copyleft.guide) points to the guide itself.
 
  * [compliance.guide](http://compliance.guide) points to the *GPL Compliance Guide* section of the full Guide.
 
  * [gpl.guide](http://gpl.guide) points to the *Detailed Analysis of the GNU GPL and Related Licenses* section of the full Guide.
 

	
 
As time goes on, we'll add convenience URLs to refer to specific parts of the
 
guide, which makes it easy to refer people to portions of the Guide.  Here
 
are a the ones that exist so far:
 

	
 
  * [compliance.guide/pristine](http://compliance.guide/pristine) points to
 
    the "pristine example", the chapter entitled *ThinkPenguin Wireless Router: Excellent CCS*.
 

	
 
### Offsite Resources
 

	
 
#### What Is Copyleft?
 
#### More on: "What Is Copyleft?"
 

	
 
Here are a few sources to read generally what copyleft is:
 

	
 
  * [Richard M. Stallman's essay on copyleft at gnu.org](https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/)
 
  * [The Wikipedia entry on Copyleft](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft)
 
    (The definition of copyleft at the top of this page is modified version
 
    of the first paragraph of that Wikipedia entry).