Is Public Domain Equivalent to Free?
June 15, 2008
Public domain is loosely used by some people to mean free or available gratis. In stricter and legal terms, it means “not copyrighted”. If a public domain contains the source code, this is a special case of non-copylefted free software which could mean that some copies or modified versions may not be free at all.
An executable program can be in the public domain without the source code being available. Since free software requires accessibility of source code, this cannot be considered as such. Most free software however, are not in the public domain. There may be some legal steps to be taken to disclaim the copyright on any program that is desired to be written in the public domain.
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