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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html lang="en"><head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("http://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.wikipedia.org:80/wiki/Free_software_license","20030627000441","http://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1056672281"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <title>Free software license - Wikipedia</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; 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See <a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software_movement" class="internal" title="Free software movement">Free software movement</a> for more information. <p> The <a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation" class="internal" title="Free Software Foundation">Free Software Foundation</a> maintains a list of free software licenses at their web site. The list distinguishes between free software licenses that are compatible or incompatible with the FSF license of choice, the <a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License" class="internal" title="GNU General Public License">GNU General Public License</a>, which is a <a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft" class="internal" title="Copyleft">copyleft</a> license. The list also contains licenses which the <a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/FSF" class="internal" title="FSF">FSF</a> considers non-free for various reasons. The list, which differs slightly from the <a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_license" class="internal" title="Open source license">open source license</a> list, can be found at <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20030627000441/http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html" class="external" title="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html">http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html</a> <p> See also: <ul><li> <a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software" class="internal" title="Free software">Free software</a> </li><li> <a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation" class="internal" title="Free Software Foundation">Free Software Foundation</a> </li><li> <a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_license" class="internal" title="Open source license">Open source license</a></li></ul> </div><br clear="all"> <div id="footer"><table width="98%" border="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td width="152" rowspan="1"> </td><td class="bottom" align="left" valign="top"><strong><a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Free_software_license&action=edit" class="internal" title="Free software license">Edit this page</a></strong> | <a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Free_software_license" class="internal" title="Talk:Free software license">Discuss this page</a> | <a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Free_software_license&action=history" class="internal" title="Free software license">Page history</a> | <a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Whatlinkshere&target=Free_software_license" class="internal" title="Special:Whatlinkshere">What links here</a> | <a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Recentchangeslinked&target=Free_software_license" class="internal" title="Special:Recentchangeslinked">Related changes</a><br> <br><a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" class="internal" title="Main Page">Main Page</a> | <a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About" class="internal" title="Wikipedia:About">About Wikipedia</a> | <a href="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Recentchanges" class="internal" title="Special:Recentchanges">Recent changes</a> | <form name="search" class="inline" method="get" action="/web/20030627000441/http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml"><input type="text" name="search" size="19" value=""> <input type="submit" name="go" value="Go"> <input type="submit" value="Search"></form><br><span id="pagestats"> This page was last modified 07:46 13 Jun 2003. 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