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M-LOK

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119-452: M-LOK , for Modular Lock , is a firearm rail interface system developed and patented by Magpul Industries . The license is free-of-charge, but subject to an approval process. M-LOK allows for direct accessory attachment onto the "negative space" (hollow slot) mounting points, and is a competing standard to VLTOR's open sourced KeyMod system for replacing the ubiquitous Picatinny rail in some applications. Both M-LOK and KeyMod enable

238-529: A Creative Commons license. The resulting cultural product is then available to download free (generally accessible) to anyone with an Internet connection. Older, analog technologies such as the telephone or television have limitations on the kind of interaction users can have. Through various technologies such as peer-to-peer networks and blogs , cultural producers can take advantage of vast social networks to distribute their products. As opposed to traditional media distribution, redistributing digital media on

357-720: A derivative work —such as a copy of a software program modified to fix a bug or add a feature, or a remix of a song—but are unable or unwilling to pay the copyright holder for the right to do so. Being organized as effectively a " consumers' cooperative ", open source eliminates some of the access costs of consumers and creators of derivative works by reducing the restrictions of copyright. Basic economic theory predicts that lower costs would lead to higher consumption and also more frequent creation of derivative works. Organizations such as Creative Commons host websites where individuals can file for alternative "licenses", or levels of restriction, for their works. These self-made protections free

476-553: A retronym to differentiate older full-powered rifles of these configurations like the M1 Garand , from newer assault rifles using intermediate cartridges like the Heckler & Koch HK33 , but it is sometimes used to describe similar modern rifles such as the FN SCAR . Battle rifles serve similar purposes as assault rifles, as they both are usually employed by ground infantry for essentially

595-445: A riot gun or breaching rounds to function as a door breaching shotgun. Shotgun munitions, regardless of type, are packed into shotgun shells (cartridges designed specifically for shotguns) that are loaded into the shotgun for use; these shells are commonly loose and manually loaded one-by-one, though some shotguns accept magazines. Shotguns share many qualities with rifles, such as both being descendants of early long guns such as

714-462: A weld nut which has to be placed manually on the inside of the handguard before mounting, making the slot system unsuited for applications such as free-floating handguards. Also, depending on the accessory item, the spacing increments between the MOE slots were not small or uniform enough to adjust the desired placement of accessories. Acknowledging shortcomings of the MOE systems, Magpul drafted M-LOK as

833-663: A broad class of rifles generally summed up as short, lightweight, portable sniper rifles; and designated marksman rifles , semi-automatic high-precision rifles, usually chambered in intermediate or full-power cartridges, that fill the range gap between sniper rifles and regular rifles and are designed for designated marksmen in squads. Examples of sniper and scout rifles include the M40 rifle , Heckler & Koch PSG1 , Walther WA 2000 , Accuracy International AWM , M24 Sniper Weapon System , Steyr Scout , Sako TRG , and CheyTac Intervention . Examples of anti-materiel and anti-tank rifles include

952-482: A computer program in which the source code is available to the general public for use for any (including commercial) purpose, or modification from its original design. Open-source code is meant to be a collaborative effort, where programmers improve upon the source code and share the changes within the community. Code is released under the terms of a software license . Depending on the license terms, others may then download, modify, and publish their version (fork) back to

1071-422: A computer program in which the source code is available to the general public for use or modification from its original design. Code is released under the terms of a software license . Depending on the license terms, others may then download, modify, and publish their version (fork) back to the community. Many large formal institutions have sprung up to support the development of the open-source movement, including

1190-423: A full-power caliber and a certain weight that can be operated by an individual but tend to work best with a crew; and heavy machine guns , machine guns that are too large and heavy to be carried and are thus mounted to something (like a tripod or military vehicle ), and require a crew to operate. A general-purpose machine gun combines these categories under a single flexible machine gun platform, often one that

1309-625: A full-size rifle with a shortened carbine-style barrel for close-quarters use. The small size of a carbine provides lighter weight and better maneuverability, making them ideal for close-quarters combat and storage in compact areas. This makes them popular firearms among special forces and police tactical units alongside submachine guns , considerably so since the late 1990s due to the familiarity and better stopping power of carbines compared to submachine guns. They are also popular with (and were originally mostly intended for) military personnel in roles that are expected to engage in combat, but where

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1428-452: A full-size rifle would be an impediment to the primary duties of that soldier ( logistical personnel, airborne forces , military engineers , officers , etc.), though since the turn of the millennium these have been superseded to a degree in some roles by personal defense weapons . Carbines are also common among civilian firearm owners who have size, space, and power concerns similar to military and police users. Examples of carbines include

1547-508: A meeting held at Palo Alto, California , in reaction to Netscape 's announcement in January 1998 of a source code release for Navigator . Linus Torvalds gave his support the following day, and Phil Hughes backed the term in Linux Journal . Richard Stallman , the founder of the free software foundation (FSF) in 1985, quickly decided against endorsing the term. The FSF's goal was to promote

1666-793: A method of effective self-defense against skirmishers and infiltrators who cannot effectively be defeated by low-powered submachine guns and handguns, often the only firearms suitable for those personnel (while they could be issued rifles or carbines, those would become unnecessary burdens in their normal duties, during which the likelihood of hostility is fairly rare regardless, making their issuance questionable). Thus, per their name, personal defense weapons allow these personnel to effectively defend themselves from enemies and repel attacks themselves or at least until support can arrive. They are not intended for civilian self-defense due to their nature as automatic firearms (which are usually prohibited from civilian purchase), though some semi-automatic PDWs exist for

1785-460: A more commercially minded position. In addition, the ambiguity of the term "free software" was seen as discouraging business adoption. However, the ambiguity of the word "free" exists primarily in English as it can refer to cost. The group included Christine Peterson , Todd Anderson, Larry Augustin , Jon Hall , Sam Ockman , Michael Tiemann and Eric S. Raymond . Peterson suggested "open source" at

1904-448: A more nuanced position than corporations have traditionally sought. Instead of seeing intellectual property law as an expression of instrumental rules intended to uphold either natural rights or desirable outcomes, an argument for OSC takes into account diverse goods (as in "the Good life" ) and ends. Sites such as ccMixter offer up free web space for anyone willing to license their work under

2023-451: A new and improved mounting standard which was released in 2014 replacing the existing MOE slot. The M-LOK rail specification included metric dimensions instead of imperial , and utilizes a T-slot nut capable of only 90-degree rotation, reinforced by thread-locking fluid , making it suited for applications on free-floating handguards. It was designed to work with both metal and polymer parts. In 2016, Colt Canada developed and released

2142-478: A product (or service) of economic value, which they make available to contributors and noncontributors alike." This definition captures multiple instances, all joined by similar principles. For example, all of the elements – goods of economic value, open access to contribute and consume, interaction and exchange, purposeful yet loosely coordinated work – are present in an open-source software project, in Misplaced Pages, or in

2261-527: A product's design or blueprint, and universal redistribution of that design or blueprint. Before the phrase open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of other terms, such as free software , shareware , and public domain software . Open source gained hold with the rise of the Internet. The open-source software movement arose to clarify copyright , licensing , domain , and consumer issues. Generally, open source refers to

2380-406: A product's design or blueprint, and universal redistribution of that design or blueprint. Before the phrase open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of other terms. Open source gained hold in part due to the rise of the Internet. The open-source software movement arose to clarify copyright , licensing , domain , and consumer issues. An open-source license

2499-457: A product, movie or CD. By removing the cultural middlemen, messageboards help speed the flow of information and exchange of ideas. OpenDocument is an open document file format for saving and exchanging editable office documents such as text documents (including memos, reports, and books), spreadsheets , charts, and presentations. Organizations and individuals that store their data in an open format such as OpenDocument avoid being locked into

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2618-420: A product. Copyright creates a monopoly so that the price charged to consumers can be significantly higher than the marginal cost of production. This allows the author to recoup the cost of making the original work. Copyright thus creates access costs for consumers who value the work more than the marginal cost but less than the initial production cost. Access costs also pose problems for authors who wish to create

2737-411: A proprietary license and charge for copies, or an open license. Some goods which require large amounts of professional research and development, such as the pharmaceutical industry (which depends largely on patents, not copyright for intellectual property protection) are almost exclusively proprietary, although increasingly sophisticated technologies are being developed on open-source principles. There

2856-524: A real time conversation online) and image uploading. Some messageboards use phpBB , which is a free open-source package. Where blogs are more about individual expression and tend to revolve around their authors, messageboards are about creating a conversation amongst its users where information can be shared freely and quickly. Messageboards are a way to remove intermediaries from everyday life—for instance, instead of relying on commercials and other forms of advertising, one can ask other users for frank reviews of

2975-474: A requirement to preserve the name of the authors and a copyright statement within the code, or a requirement to redistribute the licensed software only under the same license (as in a copyleft license). One popular set of open-source software licenses are those approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) based on their Open Source Definition (OSD). Social and political views have been affected by

3094-472: A single software vendor, leaving them free to switch software if their current vendor goes out of business, raises their prices, changes their software, or changes their licensing terms to something less favorable. Open-source movie production is either an open call system in which a changing crew and cast collaborate in movie production, a system in which the result is made available for re-use by others or in which exclusively open-source products are used in

3213-469: A single soldier, though some are crew-served weapons that require a dedicated crew of soldiers to operate, usually between two and six soldiers depending on the machine gun's operation and the crew members' roles (ammunition bearers, spotters, etc.). Machine guns can be divided into three categories: light machine guns , individual-served machine guns of an intermediate cartridge that are usually magazine-fed; medium machine guns , belt-fed machine guns of

3332-671: A software format, is published and made available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the hardware and source code without paying royalties or fees. Open-source hardware evolves through community cooperation. These communities are composed of individual hardware/software developers, hobbyists, as well as very large companies. Examples of open-source hardware initiatives are: Some publishers of open-access journals have argued that data from food science and gastronomy studies should be freely available to aid reproducibility . A number of people have published creative commons licensed recipe books. An open-source robot

3451-416: A technology that makes webpages easily updatable with no understanding of design, code, or file transfer required. While corporations, political campaigns and other formal institutions have begun using these tools to distribute information, many blogs are used by individuals for personal expression, political organizing, and socializing. Some, such as LiveJournal or WordPress , use open-source software that

3570-410: A time by the user, rather than automatically. Manual action firearms can be divided into two basic categories: single-shot firearms that can only be fired once per barrel before it must be reloaded or charged via an external mechanism or series of steps; and repeating firearms that can be fired multiple times per barrel, but can only be fired once with each subsequent pull of the trigger or ignite, and

3689-405: A user forum or community. They can also be present in a commercial website that is based on user-generated content . In all of these instances of open collaboration, anyone can contribute and anyone can freely partake in the fruits of sharing, which are produced by interacting participants who are loosely coordinated. An annual conference dedicated to the research and practice of open collaboration

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3808-413: A vote, and the winner was announced at a press conference the same evening. Some economists agree that open-source is an information good or "knowledge good" with original work involving a significant amount of time, money, and effort. The cost of reproducing the work is low enough that additional users may be added at zero or near zero cost – this is referred to as the marginal cost of

3927-418: Is peer production , with products such as source code, blueprints , and documentation freely available to the public. The open source movement in software began as a response to the limitations of proprietary code . The model is used for projects such as in open source appropriate technology , and open source drug discovery. Open source promotes universal access via an open-source or free license to

4046-401: Is peer production , with products such as source code, blueprints , and documentation freely available to the public. The open-source movement in software began as a response to the limitations of proprietary code. The model is used for projects such as in open-source appropriate technology , and open-source drug discovery. The open-source model for software development inspired the use of

4165-409: Is a robot whose blueprints, schematics, or source code are released under an open-source model Free and open-source software (FOSS) or free/libre and open-source software (FLOSS) is openly shared source code that is licensed without any restrictions on usage, modification, or distribution. Confusion persists about this definition because the "free", also known as "libre", refers to the freedom of

4284-551: Is a long gun that has a predominantly smoothbore barrel—meaning it lacks rifling—designed to fire a number of shot pellets in each discharge. These shot pellet sizes commonly range between 2 mm #9 birdshot and 8.4 mm #00 (double-aught) buckshot, and produce a cluster of impact points with considerably less range and accuracy, since shot spreads during flight. Shotguns are also capable of firing single solid projectiles called slugs , or specialty (often " less lethal ") munitions such as bean bags or tear gas to function as

4403-616: Is a magazine-fed carbine chambered in a small-caliber handgun cartridge (such as 9×19mm Parabellum , .45 ACP , .22 Long Rifle , and .40 S&W ). They cannot be considered machine guns due to their small-caliber, hence the prefix " sub- " to differentiate them from proper machine guns. Submachine guns are commonly associated with high rates of fire, automatic fire capabilities, and low recoil, though many submachine guns differentiate from this in various ways, such as having fairly low rates of fire or including burst and semi-automatic modes available through selective fire. Most submachine guns are

4522-414: Is a type of license for computer software and other products that allows the source code , blueprint or design to be used, modified or shared (with or without modification) under defined terms and conditions. This allows end users and commercial companies to review and modify the source code, blueprint or design for their own customization, curiosity or troubleshooting needs. Open-source licensed software

4641-417: Is any firearm with a notably long barrel, typically a length of 10 to 30 inches (250 to 760 mm) (there are restrictions on minimum barrel length in many jurisdictions; maximum barrel length is usually a matter of practicality). Unlike a handgun, long guns are designed to be held and fired with both hands, while braced against either the hip or the shoulder for better stability. The receiver and trigger group

4760-404: Is evidence that open-source development creates enormous value. For example, in the context of open-source hardware design, digital designs are shared for free and anyone with access to digital manufacturing technologies (e.g. RepRap 3D printers) can replicate the product for the cost of materials. The original sharer may receive feedback and potentially improvements on the original design from

4879-540: Is most suitable as a light or medium machine gun but fares well as a heavy machine gun. A closely related concept is the squad automatic weapon , a portable light machine gun or even a modified rifle that is designed and fielded to provide a squad with rapid direct fire . Examples of machine guns include the Maxim gun , M2 Browning , Bren light machine gun , MG 42 , PK machine gun , FN MAG , M249 light machine gun , RPK , IWI Negev , and M134 Minigun . A submachine gun

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4998-401: Is mostly available free of charge, though this does not necessarily have to be the case. Licenses which only permit non-commercial redistribution or modification of the source code for personal use only are generally not considered as open-source licenses. However, open-source licenses may have some restrictions, particularly regarding the expression of respect to the origin of software, such as

5117-467: Is mounted into a stock made of wood, plastic, metal, or composite material, which has sections that form a foregrip, rear grip, and optionally (but typically) a shoulder mount called the butt . Early long arms, from the Renaissance up to the mid-19th century, were generally smoothbore firearms that fired one or more ball shot, called muskets or arquebuses depending on caliber and firing mechanism. Since

5236-432: Is open to any interested manufacturer. Note that although Magpul describes the license as a "free license", the meaning does not match the more common meaning originally established in computer circles . The computer "free license" refers to a freedom to use, while Magpul only conditionally offers the license for free (analogous to a source-available freeware ). NATO standards conform military issued assault rifles like

5355-443: Is open to the public and can be modified by users to fit their own tastes. Whether the code is open or not, this format represents a nimble tool for people to borrow and re-present culture; whereas traditional websites made the illegal reproduction of culture difficult to regulate, the mutability of blogs makes "open sourcing" even more uncontrollable since it allows a larger portion of the population to replicate material more quickly in

5474-711: Is software which source code is published and made available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the source code without paying royalties or fees. LibreOffice and the GNU Image Manipulation Program are examples of open source software. As they do with proprietary software, users must accept the terms of a license when they use open source software—but the legal terms of open source licenses differ dramatically from those of proprietary licenses. Open-source code can evolve through community cooperation. These communities are composed of individual programmers as well as large companies. Some of

5593-590: Is the International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration (OpenSym, formerly WikiSym). As per its website, the group defines open collaboration as "collaboration that is egalitarian (everyone can join, no principled or artificial barriers to participation exist), meritocratic (decisions and status are merit-based rather than imposed) and self-organizing (processes adapt to people rather than people adapt to pre-defined processes)." Open source promotes universal access via an open-source or free license to

5712-520: The AK-74 and AKS-74U . However, some carbines, such as the M1 carbine , are not a variant of any existing design and are their own firearm model. Carbines are regardless very similar to rifles and often have the same actions (single-shot, lever-action, bolt-action, semi-automatic, automatic, etc.). This similarity has given carbines the alternate name of short barreled rifle (SBR), though this more accurately describes

5831-547: The Adaptive Combat Rifle ). Magpul released the MOE slot system in 2008 as a feature on their MOE handguards, and at the same time compatible accessories such as Picatinny rail sections, direct MOE mounted light mounts, grips, bipod studs, etc. were released. The MOE slot standard was never officially released, and a drawback to the system was that the rear side of the panel had to be accessed in order to mount accessories, limiting its application. The MOE slot system uses

5950-580: The Apache Software Foundation , which supports community projects such as the open-source framework Apache Hadoop and the open-source HTTP server Apache HTTP . The sharing of technical information predates the Internet and the personal computer considerably. For instance, in the early years of automobile development a group of capital monopolists owned the rights to a 2-cycle gasoline-engine patent originally filed by George B. Selden . By controlling this patent, they were able to monopolize

6069-587: The FG 42 , Gewehr 43 , FN FAL , Howa Type 64 , and Desert Tech MDR . A sniper rifle is, per widespread definition, a high-powered precision rifle, often bolt-action or semi-automatic, with an effective range farther than that of a standard rifle. Though any rifle in a sniper configuration (usually with a telescopic sight and bipod ) can be considered a sniper rifle, most sniper rifles are purpose-built for their applications, or are variants of existing rifles that have been modified to function as sniper rifles, such as

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6188-589: The Glock , Browning Hi-Power , M1911 pistol , Makarov pistol , Walther PP , Luger pistol , Mauser C96 , and Beretta 92 . Examples of revolvers include the Colt Single Action Army , Smith & Wesson Model 10 , Colt Official Police , Colt Python , New Nambu M60 , and Mateba Autorevolver . Examples of derringers include the Remington Model 95 , FP-45 Liberator , and COP .357 Derringer . A long gun

6307-500: The M26 Modular Accessory Shotgun System . Shotguns are still popular with civilians for the suitability of their shot spread in hunting, clay pigeon shooting , and home defense. Double-barreled shotguns are break-action shotguns with two parallel barrels (horizontal side-by-side or vertical over-and-under), allowing two single shots that can be loaded and fired in quick succession. Examples of shotguns include

6426-509: The MP 18 , MP 40 , Thompson submachine gun , M3 submachine gun , Uzi , Heckler & Koch MP5 , Spectre M4 , Steyr TMP , Heckler & Koch UMP , PP-2000 , KRISS Vector , and SIG MPX . A personal defense weapon is, in simplest terms, a submachine gun that is designed to fire ammunition with ballistic performance that is similar to (but not actually a type of) rifle cartridges, often called "sub-intermediate" cartridges. In this way, it combines

6545-649: The Mauser Tankgewehr M1918 , Boys anti-tank rifle , PTRS-41 , Barrett M82 , Gepárd anti-materiel rifle , and McMillan TAC-50 . Examples of designated marksman rifles include the SVD , SR-25 , Dragunov SVU , Marine Scout Sniper Rifle , Mk 14 Enhanced Battle Rifle , and M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System . An automatic rifle is a magazine-fed rifle that is capable of automatic fire. They include most assault rifles and battle rifles, but originated as their own category of rifles capable of automatic fire, as opposed to

6664-784: The National Firearms Act and Firearm Owners Protection Act define a "machine gun" in United States Code Title 26, Subtitle E, Chapter 53, Subchapter B, Part 1, § 5845 as "... any firearm which shoots ... automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger". "Machine gun" is therefore largely synonymous with "automatic weapon" in American civilian parlance, covering all automatic firearms. In most jurisdictions, automatic rifles, as well as automatic firearms in general, are prohibited from civilian purchase or are at least heavily restricted; in

6783-638: The Springfield Armory (United States), the Royal Small Arms Factory (United Kingdom), Mauser (Germany), Steyr-Daimler-Puch (Austria), and Rock Island Armory under Armscor (Philippines). As of 2018 the Small Arms Survey reported that there were over one billion firearms distributed globally, of which 857 million (about 85 percent) were in civilian hands. U.S. civilians alone account for 393 million (about 46 percent) of

6902-464: The StG 44 produced by Nazi Germany during World War II , assault rifles have since become extremely popular among militaries and other armed groups due to their universal versatility, and they have made up the vast majority of standard-issue military service rifles since the mid-20th century. Various configurations of assault rifle exist, such as the bullpup , in which the firing grip is located in front of

7021-539: The Type 97 sniper rifle , which was essentially a standard Type 38 rifle that was modified to be lighter and come with a telescopic sight. Related developments are anti-materiel rifles , large-caliber rifles designed to destroy enemy materiel such as vehicles, supplies, or hardware; anti-tank rifles , anti-materiel rifles that were designed specifically to combat early armoured fighting vehicles , but are now largely obsolete due to advances in vehicle armour ; scout rifles ,

7140-614: The US State Department to determine whether it should be regulated by ITAR , and until it is clarified drawings are only available to US citizens . Firearm A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions ). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China , when bamboo tubes containing gunpowder and pellet projectiles were mounted on spears to make

7259-570: The Upper Receiver Group-Improved (URG-I) is a U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) program to further improve the durability and reliability of the SOPMOD Block II by introducing additional component improvements. First fielded in the same year, the main improvements are the lighter Geissele Mark 16 free-float rail that incorporates M-LOK as the mounting method and a Daniel Defense cold hammer-forged barrel that returns to

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7378-520: The Winchester Model 1892 , Rifle No. 5 Mk I , SKS , M1 carbine , Ruger Mini-14 , M4 carbine , and Kel-Tec SUB-2000 . An assault rifle is commonly defined as a selective-fire rifle chambered in an intermediate cartridge (such as 5.56×45mm NATO , 7.62×39mm , 5.45×39mm , and .300 AAC Blackout ) and fed with a detachable magazine . Assault rifles are also usually smaller than full-sized rifles such as battle rifles . Originating with

7497-425: The Winchester Model 1897 , Browning Auto-5 , Ithaca 37 , Remington Model 870 , Mossberg 500 , Benelli M4 , Franchi SPAS-12 , Atchisson AA-12 , and Knight's Armament Company Masterkey . A carbine is a long gun, usually a rifle, that has had its barrel shortened from its original length or is of a certain size smaller than standard rifles, but is still large enough to be considered a long gun. How considerable

7616-633: The breech instead of behind it. Examples of assault rifles include the Kalashnikov rifles of Soviet and Russian origin (such as the AK-47 , AKM , and AK-74 ), as well as the American M4 carbine and M16 rifle . A battle rifle is commonly defined as a semi-automatic or selective-fire rifle that is larger or longer than an assault rifle and is chambered in a "full-power" cartridge (e.g. 7.62×51mm NATO , 7.92×57mm Mauser , 7.62×54mmR ). The term originated as

7735-475: The firing pin mechanism, expelling the old cartridge and loading a new one. Open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentralized software development model that encourages open collaboration . A main principle of open source software development

7854-550: The peer production community. Many open-source projects have a high economic value. According to the Battery Open Source Software Index (BOSS), the ten economically most important open-source projects are: The rank given is based on the activity regarding projects in online discussions, on GitHub, on search activity in search engines and on the influence on the labour market. Alternative arrangements have also been shown to result in good creation outside of

7973-480: The "Open Source Summit", the event was attended by the leaders of many of the most important free and open-source projects, including Linus Torvalds, Larry Wall , Brian Behlendorf , Eric Allman , Guido van Rossum , Michael Tiemann , Paul Vixie , Jamie Zawinski , and Eric Raymond. At that meeting, alternatives to the term "free software" were discussed. Tiemann argued for "sourceware" as a new term, while Raymond argued for "open source." The assembled developers took

8092-865: The 19th and 20th centuries, various types of long guns have been created for different purposes. A rifle is a long gun that has riflings (spiral grooves) machined into the bore (inner) surface of its barrel, imparting a gyroscopically stabilizing spin to the bullets that it fires. A descendant of the musket, rifles produce a single point of impact with each firing with a long range and high accuracy. For this reason, as well as for their ubiquity, rifles are very popular among militaries as service rifles , police as accurate long-range alternatives to their traditional shotgun long guns, and civilians for hunting , shooting sports , and self-defense . Many types of rifles exist owing to their wide adoption and versatility, ranging from mere barrel length differences as in short-barreled rifles and carbines , to classifications per

8211-426: The 20th century, but have since been superseded in most combat roles by rifles, carbines, and personal defense weapons due to their low effective range and poor penetration against most body armor developed since the late 20th century. However, they remain popular among special forces and police for their effectiveness in close-quarters and low likelihood to overpenetrate targets. Examples of submachine guns include

8330-514: The CAR 816 have semi-automatic only export versions featuring M-LOK rails on the handguard to better meet civilian market preferences in the United States. The slot dimensions (used on handguards, etc.) are available on the web. The slots provide metric 20 mm (0.79 in) length intervals, and accessories can be mounted either within a slot or bridging between slots, making it possible to adjust

8449-526: The Internet can be virtually costless. Technologies such as BitTorrent and Gnutella take advantage of various characteristics of the Internet protocol ( TCP/IP ) in an attempt to totally decentralize file distribution. Open-source ethics is split into two strands: Irish philosopher Richard Kearney has used the term "open-source Hinduism " to refer to the way historical figures such as Mohandas Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda worked upon this ancient tradition. Open-source journalism formerly referred to

8568-482: The Magpul Original Equipment (MOE) system, but the two are not fully compatible. Though newer M-LOK accessories can be used on older MOE slot handguards if an adaptor plate is used, there is no adaptor available for using older MOE accessories on the newer M-LOK handguards. A prototype of the MOE slot was revealed by Magpul in late 2007 together with their Masada Concept Rifle (which would later be known as

8687-648: The Modular Rail Rifle (MRR) that uses a monolithic upper receiver with the M-LOK attachment system. In 2017, several companies produce M-LOK handguards as well as accessories like Picatinny rail strips, vertical foregrips , bipods , sling adaptors, and flashlight mounts. In 2017, a summary report of testing conducted by NSWC-Crane for USSOCOM indicated that, while comparable in endurance and rough handling testing, M-LOK greatly outperformed Keymod in repeatability, drop testing and failure load testing. In 2018,

8806-479: The U.S. for instance, most automatic rifles are Title II weapons that require certain licenses and are greatly regulated. Examples of automatic rifles include the Cei-Rigotti , Lewis gun , Fedorov Avtomat , and M1918 Browning automatic rifle . A machine gun is a fully-automatic firearm, chambered in intermediate or full-power rifle cartridges, designed to provide sustained automatic direct fire as opposed to

8925-839: The bolt-action and semi-automatic rifles commonly issued to infantry at the time of their invention. They usually have smaller magazine capacities than machine guns ; the French Chauchat had a 20-round box magazine, while the Hotchkiss Mle 1914 machine gun , the French Army 's standard machine gun at the time, was fed by a 250-round ammunition belt . Though automatic rifles are sometimes considered to be their own category, they are also occasionally considered to be other types of firearms that postdated their invention, usually as light machine guns . Automatic rifles are sometimes confused with machine guns or vice versa, or are defined as such by law;

9044-495: The civilian market, albeit often with longer barrels. Examples of personal defense weapons include the FN P90 , Heckler & Koch MP7 , AAC Honey Badger , and ST Kinetics CPW . Types aside, firearms are also categorized by their "action", which describes their loading, firing, and unloading cycle. Manual action or manual operation is essentially any type of firearm action that is loaded, and usually also fired, one cartridge at

9163-409: The community. The rise of open-source culture in the 20th century resulted from a growing tension between creative practices that involve require access to content that is often copyrighted , and restrictive intellectual property laws and policies governing access to copyrighted content. The two main ways in which intellectual property laws became more restrictive in the 20th century were extensions to

9282-699: The design's primary intended use (e.g. hunting rifle), or to the commonly accepted name for a particular variation (e.g. Gatling gun ). Shooters aim firearms at their targets with hand-eye coordination , using either iron sights or optical sights . The accurate range of pistols generally does not exceed 100 metres (110 yd; 330 ft), while most rifles are accurate to 500 metres (550 yd; 1,600 ft) using iron sights, or to longer ranges whilst using optical sights. Purpose-built sniper rifles and anti-materiel rifles are accurate to ranges of more than 2,000 metres (2,200 yd). (Firearm rounds may be dangerous or lethal well beyond their accurate range;

9401-528: The development and use of free software, which they defined as software that grants users the freedom to run, study, share, and modify the code. This concept is similar to open source but places a greater emphasis on the ethical and political aspects of software freedom. Netscape released its source code under the Netscape Public License and later under the Mozilla Public License . Raymond

9520-507: The difference is between a rifle and a carbine varies; for example, the standard Heckler & Koch G36 's barrel has a length of 480 mm (18.9 in), the G36K carbine variant's barrel is 318 mm (12.5 in), and the G36C compact variant's barrel is 228 mm (9.0 in). Some carbines are also redesigned compared to their rifle counterparts, such as the aforementioned G36/G36K and G36C, or

9639-479: The exact same size as 5 ⁄ 32  in (3.97 mm). In many industries, this makes 4.0 mm ( 5 ⁄ 32  in) hex keys preferred for consumer products because end users can successfully use an imperial key on a metric fastener, and vice versa.  • Button head cap screw While screw and slot dimensions are available on the web, the T-slot nut dimensions are currently under review by

9758-538: The exchange of money among all the manufacturers. By the time the US entered World War II , 92 Ford patents and 515 patents from other companies were being shared among these manufacturers, without any exchange of money (or lawsuits). Early instances of the free sharing of source code include IBM 's source releases of its operating systems and other programs in the 1950s and 1960s, and the SHARE user group that formed to facilitate

9877-430: The exchange of software. Beginning in the 1960s, ARPANET researchers used an open " Request for Comments " (RFC) process to encourage feedback in early telecommunication network protocols. This led to the birth of the early Internet in 1969. The sharing of source code on the Internet began when the Internet was relatively primitive, with software distributed via UUCP , Usenet , IRC , and Gopher . BSD , for example,

9996-423: The firearm's action must be reloaded or charged via an internal mechanism between trigger pulls. Types of manual actions include lever action, bolt action, and pump action. Lever action is a repeating action that is operated by using a cocking handle (the "lever") located around the trigger guard area (often incorporating it) that is pulled down then back up to move the bolt via internal linkages and cock

10115-446: The general society of the costs of policing copyright infringement. Others argue that since consumers do not pay for their copies, creators are unable to recoup the initial cost of production and thus have little economic incentive to create in the first place. By this argument, consumers would lose out because some of the goods they would otherwise purchase would not be available. In practice, content producers can choose whether to adopt

10234-403: The global total of small arms. A handgun is, as defined generally and in many gun laws , a firearm that can be used with a single hand. They are the smallest of all firearms, and are common as sidearms , concealed carry weapons, or as backup weapons for self-defense . Handguns can be categorized into two broad types: pistols , which have a single fixed firing chamber machined into

10353-443: The growth of the concept of open source. Advocates in one field often support the expansion of open source in other fields. But Eric Raymond and other founders of the open-source movement have sometimes publicly argued against speculation about applications outside software, saying that strong arguments for software openness should not be weakened by overreaching into areas where the story may be less compelling. The broader impact of

10472-467: The handguard material: Attachment screws made by many U.S. manufacturers are often either #8-32 TPI or 10-24 TPI UNC threads , which respectively have major thread diameters of 0.1640 inches and 0.1900 inches (4.166-0.794 mm and 4.826-1.058 mm expressed in metric designation). Many M-LOK screws on the international market instead use either M4 or M5 metric threads to reduce cost. The tool required for mounting, in addition to

10591-457: The high automatic rate of fire, reliable low recoil, and lightweight compact maneuverability of submachine guns with the versatility, penetration, and effective range of rifles, effectively making them an "in-between" of submachine guns and carbines. Personal defense weapons were developed to provide rear and "second-line" personnel not otherwise armed with high-caliber firearms (vehicle and weapon crews, engineers, logistical personnel, etc.) with

10710-429: The individual programmers who start an open-source project may end up establishing companies offering products or services incorporating open-source programs. Examples of open-source software products are: The Google Summer of Code , often abbreviated to GSoC, is an international annual program in which Google awards stipends to contributors who successfully complete a free and open-source software coding project during

10829-689: The industry and force car manufacturers to adhere to their demands, or risk a lawsuit. In 1911, independent automaker Henry Ford won a challenge to the Selden patent . The result was that the Selden patent became virtually worthless and a new association (which would eventually become the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association ) was formed. The new association instituted a cross-licensing agreement among all US automotive manufacturers: although each company would develop technology and file patents, these patents were shared openly and without

10948-529: The lighter "government" profile contour as well as a mid-length gas system. Used on the M4A1 carbines by ASOC then MK18 URG-I variant CQBRs by AFSOC . While M-LOK is licensed free-of-charge, it is not open source , and thus manufacturers must acquire a license from Magpul before making products using the M-LOK standard. Magpul claims this gives them more control in assuring that all M-LOK products are made to specifications ensuring compatibility. Program participation

11067-836: The minimum distance for safety is much greater than the specified range for accuracy.) A firearm is a barreled ranged weapon that inflicts damage on targets by launching one or more projectiles driven by rapidly expanding high-pressure gas produced by exothermic combustion ( deflagration ) of a chemical propellant , historically black powder , now smokeless powder . In the military, firearms are categorized into heavy and light weapons regarding their portability by infantry . Light firearms are those that can be readily carried by individual foot soldier , though they might still require more than one individual ( crew-served ) to achieve optimal operational capacity. Heavy firearms are those that are too large and heavy to be transported on foot, or too unstable against recoil , and thus require

11186-512: The musket; both having single-shot , break-action , bolt-action , lever-action , pump-action , semi-automatic , and automatic variants; and both being popular with militaries, police, and civilians for largely the same reasons. However, unlike rifles, shotguns are less favored in combat roles due to their low accuracy and limited effectiveness in modern warfare , with combat shotguns often only used for breaching or close-quarters combat and sometimes limited to underbarrel attachments such as

11305-399: The notable exception of smoothbore shotguns ) have rifled barrels to impart spin to the projectile for improved flight stability. Modern firearms can be described by their caliber (i.e. bore diameter). For pistols and rifles this is given in millimeters or inches (e.g. 7.62mm or .308 in.); in the case of shotguns, gauge or bore (e.g. 12 ga. or .410 bore.). They are also described by

11424-468: The open-source movement, and the extent of its role in the development of new information sharing procedures, remain to be seen. The open-source movement has inspired increased transparency and liberty in biotechnology research, for example CAMBIA Even the research methodologies themselves can benefit from the application of open-source principles. It has also given rise to the rapidly-expanding open-source hardware movement. Open-source software

11543-509: The portable fire lance , operable by a single person, which was later used effectively as a shock weapon in the siege of De'an in 1132. In the 13th century, fire lance barrels were replaced with metal tubes and transformed into the metal-barreled hand cannon . The technology gradually spread throughout Eurasia during the 14th century. Older firearms typically used black powder as a propellant , but modern firearms use smokeless powder or other explosive propellants. Most modern firearms (with

11662-406: The position of accessories in smaller intervals than the length of the slot. The slots on an M-Lok handguard are approximately 32 mm (1.260 in) long and 7 mm (0.276 in) wide and space 8 mm (0.315 in) from each other. The radius of the corners is approximately 2.38 mm (0.094 in). The quarter-turn T-slot nuts have different torque specifications depending on

11781-713: The product, not the price, expense, cost, or charge. For example, "being free to speak" is not the same as "free beer". Conversely, Richard Stallman argues the "obvious meaning" of term "open source" is that the source code is public/accessible for inspection, without necessarily any other rights granted, although the proponents of the term say the conditions in the Open Source Definition must be fulfilled. "Free and open" should not be confused with public ownership ( state ownership ), deprivatization ( nationalization ), anti-privatization ( anti-corporate activism ), or transparent behavior . Generally, open source refers to

11900-465: The proprietary license model. Examples include: The open-source model is a decentralized software development model that encourages open collaboration , meaning "any system of innovation or production that relies on goal-oriented yet loosely coordinated participants who interact to create a product (or service) of economic value, which they make available to contributors and noncontributors alike." A main principle of open-source software development

12019-482: The protective actions of copyright owners create what some call a " chilling effect " among cultural practitioners. The idea of an "open-source" culture runs parallel to " Free Culture ", but is substantively different. Free culture is a term derived from the free software movement , and in contrast to that vision of culture, proponents of open-source culture (OSC) maintain that some intellectual property law needs to exist to protect cultural producers. Yet they propose

12138-510: The public sphere. Messageboards are another platform for open-source culture. Messageboards (also known as discussion boards or forums), are places online where people with similar interests can congregate and post messages for the community to read and respond to. Messageboards sometimes have moderators who enforce community standards of etiquette such as banning spammers . Other common board features are private messages (where users can send messages to one another) as well as chat (a way to have

12257-734: The rear of the barrel, and are often loaded using magazines of varying capacities; revolvers , which have a number of firing chambers or "charge holes" in a revolving cylinder , each one loaded with a single cartridge or charge; and derringers , broadly defined as any handgun that is not a traditional pistol nor a revolver. There are various types of the aforementioned handguns designed for different mechanisms or purposes, such as single-shot , manual repeating , semi-automatic , or automatic pistols; single-action , double-action , or double-action/single-action revolvers; and small, compact handguns for concealed carry such as pocket pistols and " Saturday night specials ". Examples of pistols include

12376-523: The rifle's function and purpose as in semi-automatic rifles , automatic rifles and sniper rifles , to differences in the rifle's action as in single-shot , break-action , bolt-action , and lever-action rifles. Examples of rifles of various types include the Henry rifle , Winchester rifle , Lee–Enfield , Gewehr 98 , M1 Garand , MAS-36 rifle , AKM , Ruger 10/22 , Heckler & Koch G3 , Remington Model 700 , and Heckler & Koch HK417 . A shotgun

12495-510: The same purposes. However, some prefer battle rifles for their more powerful cartridge, despite the added recoil. Some designated marksman rifles are configured from battle rifles, such as the Mk 14 Enhanced Battle Rifle and United States Marine Corps Designated Marksman Rifle , both essentially heavily modified and modernized variants of the M14 rifle . Examples of rifles considered to be battle rifles include

12614-596: The semi-automatic or burst fire of standard rifles. They are commonly associated with being belt-fed , though many machine guns are also fed by box, drum, pan, or hopper magazines. They generally have a high rate of fire and a large ammunition capacity, and are often used for suppressive fire to support infantry advances or defend positions from enemy assaults. Owing to their versatility and firepower, they are also commonly installed on military vehicles and military aircraft , either as main or ancillary weapons . Many machine guns are individual-served and can be operated by

12733-586: The size of carbines and short-barreled rifles, and use similar configurations. Many are designed to take as little space as possible for use in close-quarters or for easy storage in vehicles and cases. Some submachine guns are designed and configured similar to pistols even down to size, and are thus occasionally classed as machine pistols , even if they are not actually a handgun (i.e. designed to require two hands to use). Submachine guns are considered ideal for close-quarters combat and are cheap to mass-produce. They were very common in military service through much of

12852-683: The standard journalistic techniques of news gathering and fact checking, reflecting open-source intelligence , a similar term used in military intelligence circles. Now, open-source journalism commonly refers to forms of innovative publishing of online journalism , rather than the sourcing of news stories by a professional journalist. In the 25 December 2006 issue of TIME magazine this is referred to as user created content and listed alongside more traditional open-source projects such as OpenSolaris and Linux . Weblogs , or blogs, are another significant platform for open-source culture. Blogs consist of periodic, reverse chronologically ordered posts, using

12971-720: The summer. GSoC is a large scale project with 202 participating organizations in 2021. There are similar smaller scale projects such as the Talawa Project run by the Palisadoes Foundation (a non profit based in California, originally to promote the use of information technology in Jamaica, but now also supporting underprivileged communities in the US) Open-source hardware is hardware which initial specification, usually in

13090-560: The support of a weapons platform (e.g. a fixed mount , wheeled carriage , vehicle , aircraft or water vessel ) to be tactically mobile or useful. The subset of light firearms that only use kinetic projectiles and are compact enough to be operated to full capacity by a single infantryman (individual-served) are also referred to as small arms . Such firearms include handguns such as pistols , revolvers , and derringers ; and long guns such as rifles (and their subtypes), shotguns , submachine guns , and machine guns . Among

13209-540: The term of copyright (particularly in the United States) and penalties, such as those articulated in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), placed on attempts to circumvent anti-piracy technologies. Although artistic appropriation is often permitted under fair-use doctrines, the complexity and ambiguity of these doctrines creates an atmosphere of uncertainty among cultural practitioners. Also,

13328-1094: The term to refer to other forms of open collaboration, such as in Internet forums , mailing lists and online communities . Open collaboration is also thought to be the operating principle underlining a gamut of diverse ventures, including TEDx and Misplaced Pages. Open collaboration is the principle underlying peer production , mass collaboration , and wikinomics . It was observed initially in open-source software, but can also be found in many other instances, such as in Internet forums , mailing lists , Internet communities, and many instances of open content , such as Creative Commons . It also explains some instances of crowdsourcing , collaborative consumption , and open innovation . Riehle et al. define open collaboration as collaboration based on three principles of egalitarianism , meritocracy , and self-organization . Levine and Prietula define open collaboration as "any system of innovation or production that relies on goal-oriented yet loosely coordinated participants who interact to create

13447-421: The thread size, also depends the screw head type. Hex keys are used extensively in the firearms industry, but metric and imperial hex keys as a general rule are not compatible. It is possible to damage the tool and screw by selecting a tool that is too small for the fastener, which can be done by using an imperial tool on a metric fastener, or the converse. An exception to this is 4 mm hex keys, which are almost

13566-456: The type of action employed (e.g. muzzleloader , breechloader , lever , bolt , pump , revolver , semi-automatic , fully automatic , etc.), together with the usual means of deportment (i.e. hand-held or mechanical mounting). Further classification may make reference to the type of barrel used (i.e. rifled ) and to the barrel length (e.g. 24 inches), to the firing mechanism (e.g. matchlock , wheellock , flintlock , or percussion lock ), to

13685-411: The user to have a slimmer, lighter, smoother and more fenestrated handguard / fore-end with accessories and gadgets mounted only where needed as compared to a Picatinny handguard, which typically has whole length rail slots, resulting in a heavier weight, bulkier handguard and poorer barrel ventilation, resulting in the barrel overheating more quickly. The M-LOK system can be seen as an evolution of

13804-414: The world's arms manufacturers , the top firearms manufacturers are Browning , Remington , Colt , Ruger , Smith & Wesson , Savage , Mossberg (United States), Heckler & Koch , SIG Sauer , Walther (Germany), ČZUB (Czech Republic), Glock , Steyr Arms (Austria), FN Herstal (Belgium), Beretta (Italy), Norinco (China), Rostec , and Kalashnikov (Russia). Former top producers included

13923-485: The worldwide total of civilian-held firearms. This amounts to "120.5 firearms for every 100 residents". The world's armed forces control about 133 million (about 13 percent) of the global total of small arms, of which over 43 percent belong to two countries: the Russian Federation (30.3 million) and China (27.5 million). Law enforcement agencies control about 23 million (about 2 percent) of

14042-525: Was especially active in the effort to popularize the new term. He made the first public call to the free software community to adopt it in February 1998. Shortly after, he founded The Open Source Initiative in collaboration with Bruce Perens . The term gained further visibility through an event organized in April 1998 by technology publisher Tim O'Reilly . Originally titled the "Freeware Summit" and later known as

14161-450: Was first widely distributed by posts to comp.os.linux on the Usenet, which is also where its development was discussed. Linux followed in this model. Open source as a term emerged in the late 1990s by a group of people in the free software movement who were critical of the political agenda and moral philosophy implied in the term "free software" and sought to reframe the discourse to reflect

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