Hi all,
What are the legal requirements and ethical obligations for using GNU GPL licensed software as part of a commercial, copyrighted software project? I can think of at least 3 scenarios: 1) I simply want to distribute, along with my software, a GNU GPL licensed program that may run stand-alone or may be called via fork/exec but it is its own program. I may or may not modify it. 2) I want to use GNU GPL libraries directly in my program. 3) I want to use a snippet of code, say a particular function or routine that meets my needs that I found in the source code of a GNU GPL licensed program. It seems to me that in case 1, so long as I distribute the GNU GPL licensed part with its license and source code (or make it available) so that others can modify and distribute that part freely, I can still maintain copyright on my program so as to be able to sell it commercially. Case 2 seems to get into a more gray area as to what I can do when linking to GNU GPL licensed software. Case 3 is where I really am not sure. I would like to be able to use good code snippets from others (with proper credit to their original authors) and would have no problem, obviously, if others wanted to use those same code snippets, although because it is now within my own software that I want to distribute commercially, I don't want to provide the source code. I'm looking to understand both the legal and ethical conditions of using GNU GPL software. I like the idea of open source and want to contribute but also want to make a living! Any thoughts? Dave Darrough
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