Open Source Software: Free and Open Source License Myths
Copyright can be applied to software to limit how it may be copied and distributed. As I examined in my last article, Open Source Software and the Myth of Viral Licensing, copyright alone is not enough to define what a software purchaser may do. Thus, in addition to being copyrighted, virtually all software is distributed under the terms of some license that spells out what the user is and is not permitted to do with the code.
Proprietary commercial licenses, like those under which Microsoft and Oracle offer their packages, generally forbid customers from examining the source code or even decompiling executable files; users may not make copies or otherwise share the software with others; finally, users are not permitted to distribute any modifications to the licensed software.
In other words, proprietary software vendors use licenses to maintain complete control over what goes into their software, who can use the software, who sees how it works, and who patches or improves it. Even when you are permitted to pass along copies of proprietary software, as with run-time licenses, those copies are still the property of the vendor. And the recipients are still bound by the terms of the license.
Full Article.
Therefore, all software licenses can be viewed as "viral": the terms of use are defined by the originator of the code, and those terms impose limits on how the code may be used.
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