copyleft

See also: Copyleft

English

Etymology

A pun on copyright, which refers to using copyright laws for purposes that are in some ways contrary to copyright's original intent.

Noun

copyleft (usually uncountable, plural copylefts)

1. The philosophy of using copyrights to enforce freedom of information, especially software source code.

   They believe in copyleft because they want their software to be used freely by anyone.

2. A software license that follows this philosophy.

   I have placed my program under copyleft.

   The GNU General Public License is a copyleft licence.

Derived terms

• copyleftist
• copyleft symbol
• strong copyleft
• weak copyleft

Translations

philosophy

• Basque: copyleft
• French: gauche d'auteur f, copyleft (fr) m
• German: Copyleft (de)
• Indonesian: (rare) hak tiru (literally “rights to imitate”)
• Russian: копилефт (kopileft), (rare) авторское ле́во (avtorskoje lévo)
• Spanish: copyleft m
• Vietnamese: bản quyền ngược

Verb

copyleft (third-person singular simple present copylefts, present participle copylefting, simple past and past participle copylefted)

1. (transitive) To license under a copyleft license.

   Linus Torvalds copylefted the Linux kernel.

See also

• 🄯

Basque

Etymology

Borrowed from English copyleft.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kopileft/ [ko.pi.left̪]
• Rhymes: -ileft, -eft
• Hyphenation: co‧py‧left

Noun

copyleft inan

1. copyleft
   • 2011 June 12, Alberto Pradilla, “Heterodoxia kanpin-denden barnean”, in Argia, number 2280:

     Asanbladetan eta komisioetan denetarik hitz egiten da: animalien eskubideetatik copylefteraino.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

Declension of copyleft (inan C-stem¹)

	indefinite	singular	plural	proximal plural
absolutive	copyleft	copylefta	copyleftak	copyleftok
ergative	copyleftek	copyleftak	copyleftek	copyleftok
dative	copylefti	copyleftari	copyleftei	copyleftoi
genitive	copyleften	copyleftaren	copyleften	copylefton
comitative	copyleftekin	copyleftarekin	copyleftekin	copyleftokin
causative	copyleftengatik	copyleftarengatik	copyleftengatik	copyleftongatik
benefactive	copyleftentzat	copyleftarentzat	copyleftentzat	copyleftontzat
instrumental	copyleftez	copyleftaz	copyleftez	copyleftotaz
inessive	copyleftetan	copyleftean	copyleftetan	copyleftotan
locative	copyleftetako	copylefteko	copyleftetako	copyleftotako
allative	copyleftetara	copyleftera	copyleftetara	copyleftotara
terminative	copyleftetaraino	copylefteraino	copyleftetaraino	copyleftotaraino
directive	copyleftetarantz	copylefterantz	copyleftetarantz	copyleftotarantz
destinative	copyleftetarako	copylefterako	copyleftetarako	copyleftotarako
ablative	copyleftetatik	copyleftetik	copyleftetatik	copyleftotatik
partitive	copyleftik	—	—	—
prolative	copylefttzat	—	—	—

1. Optionally, case suffixes can be separated from the root with a hyphen.

Further reading

• “copyleft”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy] (in Basque), Euskaltzaindia [Royal Academy of the Basque Language]

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English copyleft.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌkɔ.piˈlɛft͡ʃ/, /ˌkɔ.piˈlɛ.fi.t͡ʃi/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˌkɔ.piˈlɛft/

Noun

copyleft m (plural copylefts)

1. copyleft

Further reading

• “copyleft”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English copyleft.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kopiˈleft/ [ko.piˈleft̪]
• Rhymes: -eft
• Syllabification: co‧py‧left

Noun

copyleft m (plural copylefts)

1. copyleft

Usage notes

• According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.