Copyright, Copyleft?
In this weeks Wikinomics chapter, I really wish we could have started the class with the first portion. It brought to life what a wiki really is. As the chapter progressed, however, I can see why we waited until now to read it. I had to look up several terms to really get a full picture of the workings. Here is what I got (via Wikipedia, of course) :
Open-source programming: written software that must meet a certain set of principles and practices. Most important is that the source code (akin to tagging in Excel or Word) is openly available for anyone to use. It has to be freely modifiable, useable, and redistributable (Wikipedia, 2008).
GNU/Linux: an example of open sourcing.
Wiki: software that allows collaboration with users in the ability to create, edit, link, and organize a website thereby becoming a community website. "Wikipedia is an example of peer production, a new way of producing goods and services that harness the power of mass collaboration" (Tapscott and Williams, p.65, 2006).
Apache: "a collaborative, consensus-based development process and an open and pragmatic software license. Each project is managed by a self-selected team of technical experts who are active contributors to the project. The ASF is a membership to the foundation which is granted only to volunteers who have actively contributed to Apache projects" (Wikipedia, 2008).
Lordy, lordy! Linux and Windows are operating systems on your computer and Apache runs these systems as a web server. OK, I now understand that I want to understand too much. I need to keep this on a basic level or I will confuse myself. I do not need to know how to write an open-source program, nor do I need to know EXACTLY how it works. I do, however, want to know how I can make money off this concept.
I have a friend at work that is very adept at open sourcing. Sometimes a little too adept because he can make my head spin and not even know it. He said the founder of Wikipedia has actually made a new type of Wikipedia-"Wikia"- a free web hosting service free for readers and editors. It licenses user-provided content under
the "Gnu Free Documentation License". This license is a copyleft license for free documentation. "A copyleft license is the practice of using copyright law to remove restrictions on distributing copies and modified versions of a work
for others, and requiring that the same freedoms be preserved in modified versions" (Wikipedia, 2008). Could this not apply to our works? There are still resources listed so the original gets its full credit.
Comments
I love that you provided the definitions in your post! It really brings the reading from Wikinomics into focus and makes it easier to understand. I like the idea of using a copyleft license. I think you brought up a good point about how we are using resources so that the original writer still gets their full credit. What did you think about the idea of a Creative Commons limited copyright as discussed in the YouTube video? I am still a little hazy on what exactly a copyleft all entails. Is it very similar to the discussion help in the Creative Commons video?
Posted by: Stephanie Volm | March 29, 2008 1:52 PM
Wow, copyleft license! Thank you for educating me about that one! I'm going to look it up on Wikipedia right now.
And, I feel the same way about open source. Since I know nothing about writing code, it's still a mystery me. All I can say about it is that it caused a major paradigm shift in the world!
Posted by: Sara McDonnell | March 30, 2008 6:19 PM
Wow, I hear ya about the not enough/too much info divide! You aren't the only one looking up linus, apache, etc - there are some others of us out there! Sometimes I start looking into what exactly we're talking about, that leads to more questions, and suddenly I'm in over my head! I guess without some base of knowledge, all the additional information just doesn't make much sense - computers, browsers, code, all are not my area of expertise, apparently. You're right though, what is really important for us is what one can do with those tools...how we can use them to our advantage.
Posted by: Jessica L | March 30, 2008 9:07 PM