[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Legal stuf, GPL, ...



On Tue, Jan 04, 2000 at 07:49:00PM +0000, Gaal Yahas wrote:

> AJ> Interesting issue IMO. I'd like to pursue this a bit further...
> 
> AJ> You all mentioned that I 'must' publish the source code if I use a GPL
> AJ> source code in my app. How hard must I work to publish this code? Is it
> AJ> enough to:
> 
> What I heard (and please note, this was from a programmer, not a
> lawyer) about the GPL in such matters is that contrary to popular
> belief, if I use GPLed code *I need not make my code GPL*. What I
> *do* need to do is to make the code *freely available*, under any
> free license. This of course does not mean that I can change the
> license of GPL components I am using; it means *my* portions of the
> code need not be GPL (but do have to be free).

This seems to be partly true. (Note that IA also NAL.) The GPL states
that you have to allow distributing any code based on GPL code, under
the GPL. That means that you can distribute your code under e.g. the
BSD license, since it doesn't preclude relicensing, so anyone can take
it and treat it as if it was under the GPL. But you can't use a more
restrictive license than the GPL, as stated in paragraph 6 thereof.


-- 
Alex Shnitman                            | http://www.debian.org
alexsh@hectic.net, alexsh@linux.org.il   +-----------------------
http://alexsh.hectic.net    UIN 188956    PGP key on web page
       E1 F2 7B 6C A0 31 80 28  63 B8 02 BA 65 C7 8B BA

The best way to accelerate a Windows NT server is at 9.8 m/s^2.
	-- Shaul Rosenzweig

PGP signature