Copies

The author of an original work of authorship (e.g., the owner of the copyright) has the exclusive right to make (or not make) copies of a copyrighted work. Others must seek the permission of the author, given in legal form by a license, before they may make copies.

All of the open source licenses in this book grant an unlimited right to create copies.

"Copies" are material objects ... in which a work is fixed by any method now known or later developed, and from which the work can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. The term "Copies" includes the material object ... in which the work is first fixed. (17 U.S.C. § 101.)

Technology is always at least one step ahead of the copyright law, so the word copies isn't limited to photocopies, or to CD-ROM duplicates, or even to binary images fixed for a time in a computer's memory. Any method of copying, now known or later developed, can be used to create a copy and still meet the definition in the law.

The original of a work is merely the first copy. Any duplicate made from it, by any means, is a copy. Every instance of computer software, as long as it is fixed in some tangible form, is a copy.

The copyright owner of software has the exclusive right to make, or to allow others to make, copies of that software.