From the course: Programming Foundations: Open-Source Licensing

Unlock the full course today

Join today to access over 23,400 courses taught by industry experts.

Open-source licenses vs. the public domain

Open-source licenses vs. the public domain

From the course: Programming Foundations: Open-Source Licensing

Start my 1-month free trial Buy for my team

Open-source licenses vs. the public domain

“

- [Voiceover] One of the biggest misconceptions about Open Source Software is because it's free and freely available is that it's part of the Public Domain. Nothing can be further than the truth. Public domain as to some creative work means that its intellectual property protections have lapsed whether they've expired or cannot be ascertainable, and that means that in order to use something in the public domain, well we're free to do so because there is no need for a license because there are no intellectual property rights anymore. And it has nothing to do with whether something is free. Examples of creative works that have lapsed in the public domain or things like the works of William Shakespeare, Beethoven, and of course any works by the government because anything that the government produces by law is excluded from copyright law. Now if you recall from our earlier discussion on copyrights, when they're created, a copyright attaches immediately upon creation. When something is…

Contents