“Right” and “left” are intrinsically opposite words and concepts. So when we hear the relatively new intellectual property term “copyleft,” it makes sense to assume it’s something of the opposite to “copyright” — “the exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material.” The opposite would be free and open use for anyone. But these related words often operate in tandem for published works. The concept of copyleft evolved from the long-standing practice of copyright — let’s explore.
Using the Word “Copyright”
A copyright (as a noun) is an exclusive legal right to distribute (print, publish, perform, film, or record) some sort of material (literary, artistic, or musical), and to authorize others to do the same. For example, a book can be “under copyright.” The word can also be used as an adjective (meaning “protected by copyright”), as in, “The agency spent millions to use the copyright songs in the ad.” And it operates as a verb, too: “He copyrighted his music.” The word “copyright” first emerged as legal jargon around 1729 as a compound word formed from “copy” (“to duplicate”) and “right” (“a privilege”).
The Emergence of “Copyleft”
The word “left” has an ancient reputation of being somehow more sinister than the word “right.” It’s tied to practices of fortune-telling and birds flying in from the left, but even as recently as the mid-1900s, grade-school children were trained to use their right hands over their left. Many of those old superstitions have fallen away, yet the word “left” remains as a counterpoint to “right.” However, “right” is a homophone that can mean many things: “morally good,” “true or correct,” “in a normal state,” or “relating to the side that is to the east when the thing is facing north,” among other usages. In the word “copyright,” the “right” refers to a privilege, not directionality, but language creation doesn’t always make perfect sense.
“Copyleft” is defined as “an arrangement whereby software or artistic work may be used, modified, and distributed freely on condition that anything derived from it is bound by the same condition.” We can see it’s not a direct opposite, but rather a specific license granted under copyright law. “Copyleft” made its debut in the 1980s, but it’s not nearly as widely used as “copyright,” and it doesn’t even appear in some mainstream dictionaries.
To further clarify, a copyleft is granted when an author places their copyright into a document, and uses distribution terms that allow a certain community to use the material (or modify it, redistribute it, etc.) as long as certain terms remain unchanged. Simply put, it grants permission to copy and/or reproduce intellectual property.
What’s the Difference?
A copyright puts more focus on protecting individuals and their creations, from literature and architecture to music and movies. A copyleft benefits a group as a whole and is central to collaborative projects. Copyrights are found in all aspects of intellectual property, while copylefts are most often used in software, digital art, writing, and other creative content.
Copyleft in Practice
A popular example of a copyleft is the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike licenses used for works of art. This license allows work to be redistributed and reused as long as the creator is credited and any derivatives of that work are also made available under the same type of license. This allows for the distribution of some digital art without payment to use it, which has become an important distinction in a chronically online world. So, if you own a copyright product and grant others the right to use it too, that’s a copyleft.
The first popular copyleft license in software was the GNU General Public License. Before this, most software licenses prohibited sharing and changing. Under this license, all users have the guaranteed freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. MIT computer engineer Richard Stallman began work on the GNU General Public License in 1983, around the same time that “copyleft” was coined.
While copyright has been protecting intellectual property and writers, artists, and other creators for centuries, copyleft — its younger, trendier offshoot — encourages growth and creativity by keeping ideas and assets open and usable for the public.
Featured image credit: Lamaip/ iStock