Copysol License

= the Copysol License has been developed for the Solidarity Economy by the Solidarius International Network

Discussion

This is also the text of the license from a draft translation in english by Jason Nardi.

"In general, software licenses and other cultural works are grouped into two distinct fields: some seek to limit the user's freedom to share and change the works to which he has licensed access; others aim precisely to ensure that freedom to share them and modify them, respected certain conditions set out in the license.

Assuming a generic understanding of freedom that these licenses wish to protect, nevertheless none of them explains the fact that the exercise of human freedom, strengthened with the use of works licensed under them, may occur either as a practice of domination or as a practice of liberation of other human beings, as a practice of destruction or protection of ecosystems, as a practice of annihilation or promotion of the cultural diversity of individuals and peoples.

The Copysol License avoids falling into this paradox of protecting freedoms that are exercised annihilating other freedoms and rights. The Copysol ensures that cultural works, carried out and made available for the solidary purpose of benefiting people, of protecting the ecosystems and the interculturality, i. e., to promote the public good, cannot be used in practices of exploitation and domination of other humans beings, or under unsustainable interventions on the ecosystems or annihilating cultural diversity, because these practices violate the ethics of liberation, under which the Copysol License is positioned and the distribution of products covered by it.

The emphasis of Copysol license is thus not just the legal assurance of freedom of the users to know, use, modify and reproduce licensed works, but also the requirement that the user's freedom to use the work is carried out without violating the right of freedom inherent in each person. This right unfolds and is objectivated in other economic, social, environmental and cultural aspects that must be protected. This is so, because the assertion of a generic freedom right, without any solidarity guarantee of the conditions required for its effective realization, ends up necessarily in the real and concrete denial of that same right ideally stated.

Thus, rather than just laisser faire what each one wants with the works accessed under the license or restricting legally its commercial use to avoid the accumulation of profit with them, the Copysol license intends to protect the public and private freedoms against the violation of the right to liberation of each person, violation that could occur with the use of licensed works themselves.

The Copysol licensing aims particularly to protect the exercise of the Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: "(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.". Thus, if the moral interest of the author on the licensing of his work is that it be used in the promotion of public and private freedoms ethically exercised, such rights may not be violated by the user of the work or of its derivate products.

What we wish with this licensing mechanism, with regards to the solidarity patrimony generated under it, is the co-responsability of the users in promoting public and private freedoms ethically exercised, in accordance with article 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which States: "(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible. (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society."

The formal recognition and respect of public and private ethical freedoms of the others and the material promotion of well-living of the people and human communities in a solidarity-driven way can not be denied in practice with the use of products licensed under the Copysol.

Thus, the use of solidary software, for example, can not violate the right to confidentiality of private communications between people, a right violated daily by companies that provide electronic mail services, both with proprietary software or with open source software, every time they intercept messages from the users with robots that crawl content to offer customized advertising services to corporations that are their clients or strategic information to Governments and their military apparatus - even if such violation is legally supported, as implicit or explicit derivations of the Terms of Service offered by these corporations.

The use of the Copysol License aims explicitly to assure the user freedoms to distribute copies of the licensed products, to have access to the source code of the licensed programs, projects and designs related to the making of tangible and intangible products, modify such licensed products and integrate them, partially or completely, in new solidarity products, to produce such tangible or intangible works, to reproduce and distribute these goods produced. Ensures to the user the right to know these rights are available to him and to access this License in its integrality.

On the operationalization of the license, developers of licensed products should protect their rights, declaring their copyright on the product and declaring its distribution under this License - which ensures the legal permission for others to use, copy, modify, make, distribute, exchange and sell the product as described in this License. As in other licenses, Copysol explains the absence of guarantees in the use of the licensed products - in order to protect and prevent respectively developers and users of the products. This process also requires that modifications made on the distributed products be clearly documented, in order not to have the attribution of new efficiencies to failures of authors of previous products, which originated the products derived by third parties.

The use of this license also prohibits to patent solidary products denying the freedoms protected therein. The subsequent authorization by States for patent products previously protected under this license, deny the rights guaranteed therein, and is characterized as a violation of Article 27 of Resolution 217 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10, 1948 - which provides that “Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author”. So, the author has a right to decide about which use license of their cultural product best ensures public and private freedoms, which he want to protect in its whole."

Status

• Version 2 of July 4, 2014 available in spanish and draft english translation via Jason Nardi