Richard stallman created the gpl to protect the gnu software from being made. You can run, change, ship, and commercialize the distribution of software licensed under the gpl. Glossing over a lot of nuances, if a program is released under a free software license or an opensource license, you generally dont have to ask anyones permission to use it. As a result, developers who use or distribute open source applications under the gpl can use the gpl licensed mysql software, and oems, isvs and vars that do not want to combine or distribute the mysql software with their.
The following licenses are in use for r or associated software such as packages. You can distribute your application using a gpl library commercially, but you must also provide the source code. Notwithstanding any other provision of this license, you have permission to link or combine any covered work with a work licensed under version 3 of the gnu affero general public license into a single combined work, and to convey the resulting work. I created a software that is made from sources licensed x11 and i wanna put my software under gnu gpl. For example, the gpl adds to the difficulty a graduate student will have in directly forming a company to commercialize his research results, or the difficulty a student will have in joining a company on the assumption that a promising research. Why dash uses the mit license and not a copyleft gpl.
Both filezilla and filezilla server as downloadable from filezilla project. The creative commons attributionsharealike international license version 4. All structured data from the file and property namespaces is available under the creative commons cc0 license. Zabbix is free and open source software, however, if you use zabbix in a commercial context we kindly ask you to support development of zabbix by purchasing some level of commercial support. Open source licenses grant permission for anybody to use, modify, and share licensed software for any purpose, subject to conditions preserving the provenance and openness of the software. You may obtain the complete corresponding source code from us for a period of three years after our last shipment of this product, which will be no earlier than 20110801, by sending a money order or.
Jun 15, 2012 relationships between the gpl licences and other software are carefully explained in the gpl faq. The first is called the gnu general public license the gpl. The gpl the gnu general public license the most popular copyleft licence, sometimes gets a hostile press, often for reasons that. It is therefore often thought that gpllicensed software is unsuitable for proprietary projects. However, i wonder how to do it concretely because a passage in the x11 license bothers me. Please note that the general public license can be restrictive, so if it doesnt meet your needs, you are better served by our commercial license. Gpl, also known as copyleft, grants permission to reuse or modify the source code to make derivative works, but if you distribute your program to others, it requires you to license your derivative work under the gpl too. The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. Compliance with the gpl upon a redistribution of the code may be a factor to consider but should be compared with the fact that you would likely not have the right to redistribute.
Marco fioretti answers a techrepublic members questions about charging fees for software thats made available under the gnu gpl license version 2 or 3. When distributing derived works, the source code of the work must be made available under the same license. While the project strives to adhere to the preferred license, there are exceptions, which are handled on a casebycase basis. This article by jerry epplin sheds some light on the issues associated with using gpl software in embedded applications, and attempts to dispel the. If violations have occurred, but the holder of the relevant free software has reinstated the certificate requesters redistribution rights, a clear, written documentation should be. Does all gnu software use the gnu gpl as its license. Also, a great benefit is that software licensed as gpl cannot be relicensed under a more permissive license. The gpl thus minimizes the number of programs that. What is the difference between gpl, agpl and lgpl licenses. As a recipient of gpl software, you have far more expansive license rights to use the software than you have under a proprietary software license agreement. By contrast, the gnu general public license is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a programto make sure it remains free software for all its users. If the original licensor is willing to undertake such parallel licensing, the code can be made available under a nongpl compatible license and thereby avoid. Making sense of software licensing articles and howtos.
Using gpl licensed components in proprietary projects. I know its possible, because gnu gpl is compatible with the x11 licence. The key innovation of the gpl license was the requirement that source code be provided along with any binary code distributed, ensuring that the. The program refers to any able work licensed under this license. You are under the reciprocity obligation, which means you are. The free software foundation considers the apache license, version 2. With open source software, there are two main types of licenses. The gpl faq list states explicitly that one can ask for license fees for software under the gpl see, e. Is it legal to do that under the gpl license terms. It is the licensees and only the licensees who must be granted assess to the source code. The gnu general public license gnu gpl or gpl is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, and modify the software.
Is that correct is the gpl is more restrictive than the mit license. You can also copy and redistribute the software to your hearts content. The following licenses are sorted by the number of conditions, from most gnu agplv3 to none unlicense. Are there translations of the gpl into other languages. If software is licenced under a gpl license, can it be used without restriction in a corporatecommercial environment. The certification program provides corporations with the assurances they require when building products upon a free software infrastructure. Wikimedia commons has media related to free software under the gpl. The gpl, lgpl, and mozilla licenses understanding open. The software included in this product contains ed software that is licensed under the gpl. Subroutine libraries provide various functions to other programs, and because. The following 151 pages are in this category, out of 151. Gnu general public license, version 3 spdx short identifier. Pages in category software using the gpl license the following 150 pages are in this category, out of 150 total. The license notice as seen in the standard license header field below states which of these applies the code in the file.
If you are considering using the gnu lesser general public license, please read the. Apr 16, 2020 the end user must abide by a set of conditions called the license. Frequently asked questions about the gnu licenses gnu. Gnu gpl license terms open source softwares stack overflow. If you have licensed software youve written under gpl version 2, and you are the original licensor of that software, you may wish to relicense your software. Personxyz wrote some software will refer to as softwarexyz that uses a proprietary library will refer to as. Does using the gpl for a program make it gnu software. Mar 05, 2001 the gpl allows you to modify, copy, and distribute software licensed under it, provided you also license the derived work under the gpl, and make available the source code. Why dash uses the mit license and not a copyleft gpl license.
When versata software sued ameriprise financial services for breaching its software license, it unwittingly unearthed a gpl violation of its own and touched off another lawsuit that could prove to be a leading case on free and open source software licensing. Ive also seen startups avoid incorporating gpl software in their products because potential acquirers avoid it. I want to use some open source softwares in my website for commercial use. Most of these opinions were formed in discussions on the debianlegal mailing list in response to questions from potential package maintainers or licensors. Development and distribution license cddl, apache software license. As a result, developers who use or distribute open source applications under the gpl can use the gpllicensed mysql software, and oems, isvs and vars that do not want to combine or distribute the mysql software with their own commercial software under a gpl license can purchase a commercial license. You might mix this with distribiution of software under gpl which is not what youve asked about directly. The licenses were originally written by richard stallman, former head of the free software foundation fsf, for the gnu project, and grant the recipients of a. Under a gpl v3 license, can i take pieces of an open source.
Can you distribute software under gpl v3 and require users to. Gpl is the acronym for gnus general public license, and its one of the. Gnu general public license version 2 open source initiative. The licenses were originally written by richard stallman, former head of the free software foundation fsf, for the gnu project, and grant the recipients of a computer program the rights of the free software. A practical guide to gpl compliance software freedom law center. Lawsuit threatens to break new ground on the gpl and.
Gpl software certification program free software foundation. Media in category free software under the gpl the following 17 files are in this category, out of 17 total. Later, when development slowed down and then stopped in 2012, the fontforge community began to take an interest in improving fontforge further with fixes, modifications, libraries, patches, and other additions which have been introduced under the same, or. By contrast, the gnu general public license is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a. Under a gpl v3 license, can i take pieces of an open. Jun 29, 2007 the gnu general public license is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works. How to use gnu licenses for your own software gnu project free. Sep 03, 2016 gpl, also known as copyleft, grants permission to reuse or modify the source code to make derivative works, but if you distribute your program to others, it requires you to license your derivative work under the gpl too. Changed the person in example from ime to personxyz given, hypothetically. As far as distribution counts, you need to put the whole package under gpl. You can use the software under gpl, redistribute it, and modify it.
This means that any derivative works programs based on your code must also be licensed under the gpl. Distribution and derivative works under the gnu general public license theresa gue abstract imagine that microsoft discovers that its profitable program, microsoft word, contains lines of code borrowed from a free and open source software program. You can however license your changes under the gpl, that is possible with x11 code, too. If you are releasing software under a gpl license, it is also necessary to determine what the sharing criteria are, which vary between the different gpl licenses and can affect when downstream users have to release their source code. Winscp is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty. Further imagine that as a result of this oversight, all users of. The combined operating systemmost commonly called linuxwas released under the gnu general public license gpl, a licensing model that was created by richard stallman of the gnu project. Can i use the gpl for something other than software. Apache 2 software can therefore be included in gplv3 projects, because the gplv3 license accepts our software. The gnu general public license is a free, copyleft license for software and other. This page presents the opinion of some debianlegal contributors on how certain licenses follow the debian free software guidelines dfsg. Why are some gnu libraries released under the ordinary gpl rather than the lesser gpl. This post takes a look at the legal issues raised by both cases and what they mean for foss producers and users. Our scripts or software are given under gpl license.
The gnu gpl is the most widely used free software license and has a strong copyleft requirement. You asked two questions, and they both have simple answers. Blender is released under the gnu general public license gpl, or free software. Qgis is a user friendly open source geographic information system gis licensed under the gnu general public license. All software produced by the apache software foundation or any of its projects or subjects is licensed according to the terms of the documents listed below. Neither does the gpl state that the source code has to be made public. Most gpl version 2 software is actually licensed as gpl version 2 or any later version, or. Our scripts or software are given under gpl license the formal terms of the gpl license can be found in the gnu general public license section. The software freedom law center provides practical advice for developers about including permissively licensed source. Nov 19, 20 marco fioretti answers a techrepublic members questions about charging fees for software thats made available under the gnu gpl license version 2 or 3.
All programs, whether they are released under the gpl or lgpl, should. Using gpllicensed components in proprietary projects. A copy of that license is included in this document on page x. This license identifier refers to the choice to use code under gpl 3. Of course, free software is licensed, not sold, and there are indeed restrictions placed on the licensee, but those differences are not likely to prevent the application of the implied license doctrine to free software, because software licensed under the gpl grants the licensee the right to make, use, and sell the software, each of which are. The gpl granted recipients unfettered rights to redistribute software with the condition that the source code could not be kept secret. Ianal, but it is pretty clear that this license would fall apart if the owner attempted to enforce it. A practical guide to gpl compliance software freedom law. Jun 21, 2016 ive also seen startups avoid incorporating gpl software in their products because potential acquirers avoid it.
You may copy, distribute and modify the software as long as you track changesdates of in source files and keep modifications under gpl. The gpl strictly aims at protecting these freedoms, requiring everyone to share their modifications when they also share the software in public. Use of the manual is a subject to the following terms. Under some free software licenses specifically gpl and lgpl, rights under the license are terminated upon activity that violates the license.
Yes, the gpl is completely compatible with the notion. The apache software foundation and the free software foundation agree that the apache license 2. The choice of licence comes down to personal preference, and both approaches can have good or bad. The end user must abide by a set of conditions called the license. Free software works by exchanging software, so be a good citizen and do not block passing improvements back e. Free or opensource software has fewer restrictions. For example, the linux kernel patches are under the gplv2 license with. There are multiple variants of the gnu gpl, each with different requirements. The gnu lesser general public license lgpl is another license created by the fsf for the purpose of permitting a certain class of programs, generally subroutine libraries, to be licensed under an fsf license but be permitted to link with nongpl software programs. This license identifier refers to the choice to use code under gpl3. The intention of the gpl general public license is to promote free open source software. The software that i am refering to is qgis which provides this description.
Oracle makes its mysql database server and mysql client libraries available under both the gpl and a commercial license. The gpl can present a real problem for those wishing to commercialize and profit from software. Please note that the general public license can be restrictive, so if it doesnt meet your needs, you are better served by our commercial license specifically. Software licensed under the gnu general public license is free software, and all software that builds on gpllicensed components is also free and must also be licensed under the gpl. Aug 26, 2008 the software included in this product contains ed software that is licensed under the gpl. You may obtain the complete corresponding source code from us for a period of three years after our last shipment of this product, which will be no earlier than 20110801, by sending. Top 10 gnu gpl license questions answered whitesource.