unity-design team mailing list archive

[Andrea Corbellini <corbellini.andrea@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 8:40 PM, Sam Hulick <samh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Sorry, I think I'm looking for something else license wise. I don't
> mind
> if the sounds are used commercially (since Ubuntu can be used
> commercially), but I am looking to safeguard against someone taking
> these sounds and selling them to make a profit. I imagine the same is
> true for Ubuntu, no? No one can take copies of Ubuntu and sell them
> to
> keep the profits?

Actually yes, this is one of the fundamental freedoms of free
software. Quoting Wikipedia [1]:

Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program for any purpose.
Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works, and change it
to make it do what you wish.
Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program, and release your
improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that
the whole community benefits.

"Freedom to redistribute copies" is without restrictions.

Of course, in your case, we are not speaking about "free software",
but "free content", which however has very similar rules [2]:

to use the content and benefit from using it,
to study the content and apply what is learned,
to make and distribute copies of the content,
to change and improve the content and distribute these derivative works.

Using a license that forbids commercial use and that forbids derived
works will make your work non-free, therefore can't be included in the
Ubuntu main repository.

I'm sure that many people better than me will be able to give you an
overview of the free software/content philosophy if you have doubts.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software#Definition
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_content

PS: If you are interested on the topic, I strongly suggest you to read
this article from the Free Software Foundation:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html