The New Hacker's Dictionary2. [Archly] Time reserved for bogus or otherwise idiotic tasks, such as implementation of chrome, or the stroking of suits. "I'll get back to him on that feature in my copious free time." copper // n. Conventional electron-carrying network cable with a core conductor of copper -- or aluminum! Opposed to light pipe or, say, a short-range microwave link. copy protection // n. A class of methods for preventing incompetent pirates from stealing software and legitimate customers from using it. Considered silly. copybroke /kop'ee-brohk/ adj. 1. [play on 'copyright'] Used to describe an instance of a copy-protected program that has been 'broken'; that is, a copy with the copy-protection scheme disabled. syn. copywronged. 2. Copy-protected software which is unusable because of some bit-rot or bug that has confused the anti-piracy check. See also copy protection. copycenter // n. [play on 'copyright' and 'copyleft'] The copyright notice carried by the various flavors of freeware BSD. According to Kirk McKusick at BSDCon 1999: "The way it was characterized politically, you had copyright, which is what the big companies use to lock everything up; you had copyleft, which is free software's way of making sure they can't lock it up; and then Berkeley had what we called "copycenter", which is "take it down to the copy center and make as many copies as you want". copyleft /kop'ee-left/ n. [play on 'copyright'] 1. The copyright notice ('General Public License') carried by GNU EMACS and other Free Software Foundation software, granting reuse and reproduction rights to all comers (but see also General Public Virus). 2. By extension, any copyright notice intended to achieve similar aims. |