All Rites Reversed
Encyclopedia
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
or a copyleft
Copyleft
Copyleft is a play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to offer the right to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be preserved in modified versions of the work...
licensing status. It is a pun on the common copyright disclaimer "All rights reserved
All rights reserved
"All rights reserved" is a phrase that originated in copyright law as part of copyright notices. It indicates that the copyright holder reserves, or holds for their own use, all the rights provided by copyright law, such as distribution, performance, and creation of derivative works; that is, they...
", a formality originally required by the Buenos Aires Convention
Buenos Aires Convention
The Buenos Aires Convention is a copyright treaty signed at Buenos Aires on 1910-04-11 which provides for the mutual recognition of copyrights where the work carries a notice containing a statement of reservation of rights...
of 1910. "All Rights Reversed" (sometimes spelled rites) was used by author Gregory Hill to authorize the free reprinting of his Principia Discordia
Principia Discordia
Principia Discordia is a Discordian religious text written by Greg Hill and Kerry Thornley . It was originally published under the title "Principia Discordia or How The West Was Lost" in a limited edition of 5 copies in 1965...
in the late 1960s. Hill's disclaimer was accompanied by the kosher "" (for kallisti) symbol, a play on , the copyright symbol
Copyright symbol
The copyright symbol, or copyright sign, designated by © , is the symbol used in copyright notices for works other than sound recordings . The use of the symbol is described in United States copyright law, and, internationally, by the Universal Copyright Convention...
.
In 1984/5 programmer Don Hopkins
Don Hopkins
Don Hopkins is an artist and programmer specializing in human computer interaction and computer graphics.He inspired Richard Stallman, who described him as a "very imaginative fellow", to use the term copyleft. He coined Deep Crack as the name of the EFF DES cracker, and built "AJAXian"...
sent Richard Stallman
Richard Stallman
Richard Matthew Stallman , often shortened to rms,"'Richard Stallman' is just my mundane name; you can call me 'rms'"|last= Stallman|first= Richard|date= N.D.|work=Richard Stallman's homepage...
a letter labeled "Copyleft—all rights reversed". Stallman chose the phrase to identify his free software
Free software movement
The free software movement is a social and political movement with the goal of ensuring software users' four basic freedoms: the freedom to run their software, to study and change their software, and to redistribute copies with or without changes. The alternative terms "software libre", "open...
method of distribution. It is often accompanied by a reversed version of the copyright symbol (see illustration).
"All Rights Reversed", its homonym, "All Rites Reversed", and/or the "Copyleft" symbol, are occasionally used among those who publish or produce media (or any other material that might normally be copyrighted) as a clever means of saying "This is not copyrighted. Please, do with it what you will." and encouraging the duplication and use of the "copy-lefted" material thereof.
The open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
character Jenny Everywhere
Jenny Everywhere
Jenny Everywhere aka "The Shifter" is an open source, public domain character. She was specifically created to be as such, when her creators could not find any other truly open source, public domain characters....
is released under an "All rights reversed" licence.