Software that is placed under "copyleft" -- as opposed to copyright -- may be in a legal limbo and is still reliant on the concept of copyright, an Irish legal expert says. Stallman said the GPL and copyleft helps guarantee . . .
Software that is placed under "copyleft" -- as opposed to copyright -- may be in a legal limbo and is still reliant on the concept of copyright, an Irish legal expert says. Stallman said the GPL and copyleft helps guarantee that "freedom, principle and ethics" are part of the software developer and user community. "We have to think of the social consequences of our work," he said.

However, Paul Lambert, a lawyer with LK Shields Solicitors in Dublin, argued that even with copyleft "as a fundamental concept, copyright remains, because copyleft can't work without copyright."

If a creative work was of sufficient quality and uniqueness, "copyright manifests automatically," he said. "It's created by statute -- you can't get away from that."

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