Yesterday, we discussed Creative Commons.

Copyleft is essentially an attempt to license copyrighted material with no restrictions: a copyleft license allows any person with a copy of a given work to reproduce, adapt or distribute that work. It has been mostly used for software, but has, in a few instances, been used for various written works. There are some variations of copyleft licenses, primarily concerned with whether or not derived works are also considered copyleft.

Copyleft is often associated with open source works: works that are made with the intention of offering them to the general public at no cost. While this practice can have a number of benefits for quickly distributing a work, it is a less than ideal situation for freelance writers, who rely on payment for the various works they create, and for whom copyright provides an essential shield for their work. Because copyleft (and, similarly, Creative Commons) is very clearly about distributing works for free, it is not an option for most freelance writers.

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