## WHAT IS `FREELY DISTRIBUTABLE' ?

Freely distributable does not mean the same thing as PD (public domain). A big portion of the software available here is not in the public domain, although it is freely distributable. Many are copyrighted by some person or organization, but can be distributed freely; there may be limitations on the manner of distribution and/or the usage of the programs. There may also be certain rules concerning the distribution of modified versions (derivate work) of the programs, like saying that if you redistribute a modified version you must include in the distribution the date and author of the modification. Also on many programs you must include a note crediting the original author of the program if you use his code in your own programs.

An example of this is the Free Software Foundation's GNU software. GNU software may be distributed freely, provided that the sources are included, an offer to distribute the sources is included or that a pointer to where the sources can be gotten from is included. On FTP.FUNET.FI, all the GNU source code published is available from the directory pub/gnu. Some GNU binaries are available from other directories as well; although we have tried to include a pointer to the sources and the copyright information in these other directories, too, it might be that we have neglected some. This note is here to point you to the sources in pub/gnu. For further information, the GNU copyright is in the file pub/gnu/COPYING.