In the following you will find a description of the Copyleft concept that can be viewed as an introduction to the reasoning that @@ -23,14 +23,14 @@ enormous task, most of them realize that using an existing Free Software license is much easier and much safer. We provide a list of known Free Software licenses so that you can find the one that best -suit your purpose. When doing so you need to understand the benefits +suits your purpose. When doing so you need to understand the benefits of each license and be careful about compatibility issues.
We encourage you to adopt the following attitude if you need to take an immediate decision and can't spare time to educate yourself on -the licensing subject. These are over conservative advices you can -apply if you want to make sure that your freedom won't be jeopardized. +the licensing subject. This are overly conservative advice that you can +apply if you want to make sure that your freedom won't be jeopardised. We urge you to learn more about the legal protection of Free Software shortly afterwards. Reading this document and following pointers will -introduce you to the concepts and enable you to make up your mind. It -would be a mistake to consider these advices as a definitive way of +introduce the concepts and enable you to make up your mind. It +would be a mistake to consider this advice as a definitive way of dealing with legal issues.
Copyleft also helps programmers who want to contribute -improvements to Free Software get permission to do that. These +improvements to Free Software to get permission to do that. These programmers often work for companies or universities that would do almost anything to get more money. A programmer may want to -contribute her changes to the community, but her employer may want to -turn the changes into a proprietary software product. +contribute their changes to the community, but their employer may want +to turn the changes into a proprietary software product.
When we explain to the employer that it is illegal to distribute the improved version except as Free Software, the employer usually @@ -185,48 +185,48 @@ non free software world this problem is not very visible since the license does not grant you any freedom beyond the ability to run the software on a single machine. In the Free Software world -anyone can mix various piece of software and therefore run into +anyone can mix various pieces of software and therefore run into a potential conflict between the licensing terms. -
A compatibility study is made for the most wide spread license, -the GNU GPL. It lists licenses that are A compatibility study has been made for the most wide spread +license, the GNU GPL. It lists licenses that are compatible with it and the licenses that are incompatible. Although this on-going study is a good reference, every software author has to -think about the implications of using a specific license. Chosing a +think about the implications of using a specific license. Choosing a license that has compatibility problems may lead to practical troubles and prevent the use of the software in conjunction with others.
The best way to find which Free Software license is fit for the software you wrote is to talk to people. Send mail to non-profit Free -Software organizations explaining your situation, weight their answers +Software organisations explaining your situation, weigh their answers and make up your mind. Always try to speak with at least one person with actual experience, someone who had to face the same questions in the past. -
The experience shows that chosing a Free Software license is only +
Experience shows that choosing a Free Software license is only partly a matter of evaluating advantages and drawbacks. Most of the discussions surrounding this choice lead to a better understanding of -the Free Software movement. Once the level of understanding reach a +the Free Software movement. Once the level of understanding reaches a given level, the choice of the license if often straight forward.
The strongest incentive to use the translation of a license is to better comply to national laws. This is rarely needed, unless you live -in a country who did not sign the Berne convention or made significant +in a country that did not sign the Berne convention or made significant exceptions to it. -
In some cases governement agencies are forced to use licenses written -in the offcial language of the country. There is no easy solution to this +
In some cases government agencies are forced to use licenses written +in the official language of the country. There is no easy solution to this problem at present.
The Various
@@ -255,7 +255,7 @@
The translation effort of the
-GPL in french.
+GPL to French.