Copyleft Licenses for Repositioning the Frontiers of Open Access Environment: An Evaluation

Abstract

Management of ever growing information explosion has caused the paradigm shift from Closed Access to Open Access (OA) which in turn is contributing to the extended facets of access policy. The realization of need of OA to information has been robust than ever before. The intention of OA is suppressed with existing copyright policies which have given rise to ‘copyleft’ that evolved as a part of OA movement. With the emergence of copyleft concept, efforts are being made to finding ways to break traditional copyright lock for the effective and free diffusion of information. The present paper discusses the features and importance of copyleft. The study gives an account of Creative Commons Share-Alike (CC SA) and GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) that are parallel to copyleft and gives a brief comparison. The study also aims to indicate the shortcomings of these licenses and recommends factors for improvisation. A description of libraries dealing with OA movement is given at the extended part of the paper.