The recent lawsuit filed by the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) over General Public License (GPL) compliance dealt with big names in the electronics industry, but does your small business know how to navigate General Public License GPL Open Source?
At first glance, you may think that this can’t possibly apply to your business. But with more products involving on-board software, and more businesses making themselves available to customers online, there’s an increasing chance that your business, or perhaps a contractor it uses, might incorporate some GPL Open Source software into the products or services you offer.
First of all, most obligations of the GPL license kick in only when the GPL software is used, then redistributed to others (either in its original form or in a modified version). This can happen if a product’s controls were built with GPL covered source code incorporated.
Here are some of the requirements of using GPL Open Source as outlined in Ars Technica and the GNU Official Website:
One important thing to note here is that the only source code that companies need to publish and make available to users are only the components that utilize GPL licensed components. You do not necessarily have to publish all of your source code. This means that small businesses can still have proprietary components that are separate from the individual GPL-licensed components.
Related Resources:
- Free Software Foundation Settles Its Lawsuit Against Cisco (Findlaw’s Technologist Blog)
- GNU General Public License (GNU Official Website)
- GPL-Compatible Free Software Licenses (Free Software Foundation Website)
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