On Tuesday 29 March 2011 16:43:14 adam shea - [email protected] wrote: > Say I were to use my "derived work" strictly for testing proprietary > interfaces. Interfaces that I am not allowed to disclose to the general > public and will most definetely upset my employer very much if I were to do > so. I can create a "derived work" based on the Linux kernel and not license > it under the GPL so long as it is never released? Or, would it be the case > that letting someone else (someone on my team) use the "derived work" > constitutes "distribution."
Yes, you are allowed to do it. You don't have to release your modified source to anyone except people who receive the binaries. If the derived work's binaries are not leaving your company, there is no obligation. I am familiar with this because I am working with OSS compliance lawyers on our Linux-based product. And yes, we'll ship the sources, but then again, we sell the product worldwide. Similarly, we have internal tools based on GPL code that we don't release because we don't ship the code. --Fred _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Apr 6 - Introduction to IPv6 May 4 - Inkscape Jun 1 - Zimbra
