Millions of people around the worldincluding entire governmentsare now using free software on their computers. The gpl was created by richard stallman in order to protect gnu software from being made proprietary. 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. The key distinction with the gpl license is what constitutes use of a software package released under this license. The gnu general public license is a free, copyleft license for software and. The gnu lesser general public license lgpl is a freesoftware license published by the free software foundation fsf. The gnu general public license is often called the gnu gpl for short. Gpl licensed code cant be used for paid and proprietary software. Frequently asked questions about the gnu licenses gnu. Software license dictionary definition software license. Most gpl version 2 software is actually licensed as gpl version 2 or any later version, or. Most software is licensed rather than sold, which means purchasers are never the actual owners of the software, although they may be able to use it without any time limit. This general public license applies to most of the free software foundations software and to. The gnu gpl allows users to change and share all versions of a program.
The most widespread use of gpl is in reference to the gnu gpl, which is commonly abbreviated simply as gpl when it is understood that the term refers. You can see that the gnu gpl requires notices that it is covered by this license, that the original sourcecode has been modified, and that the new work must also be licensed under the gnu gpl. Gnu lesser general public license lgpl gnu affero general public license agpl gnu free documentation license fdl answers to common questions. Ubuntu incorporates all the features of a unix os with an added customizable gui, which makes it popular in universities and research organizations. An example of a copyleft free software license is the often used gnu general public license gpl, also the first copyleft license. It complements the gnu general public license, which is a copyleft license designed for free software. For example, if you write some software and release it under the gnu general public license a widelyused copyleft license, and then someone else modifies that software and distributes their modified version, the modified version must be licensed under the gnu gpl too including any new code written specifically to go into the modified. The fsf sponsors the gnu projectthe ongoing effort to provide a complete operating system licensed as free software.
By contrast, the gnu general public license is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free softwareto make sure the software is free for all its users. Free software is a matter of liberty, not price free. Free and open source licenses include free software with no monetary usage charge, but. The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. Software licensing describes the legal rights pertaining to the authorized use of digital material. Most free licenses are worldwide, royaltyfree, nonexclusive, and perpetual see durations. Copies of all gpllicensed software published by the. The software included in this product contains ed software that is licensed under the gpl. For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee. Gnu pronounced gnew is a free unixlike operating system distributed by the free software foundation. The gnu general public license, version 2 is the license created by the free software foundation and the gnu project in order to be used for software documentation a work licensed in this way grants all the four freedoms listed in the definition of free cultural works. However, not being a lawyer, and actually not having read the whole license, i cant understand what exactly you can do freely and what not with agpl. Today, free software is available for just about any task you can imagine.
Definition of gnu free documentation license in the dictionary. It was initially created for use with software documentation, but can be applied to other types of works as well, such as wikipedia as a license, the gfdl is a type of contract between the. Information and translations of gnu free documentation license in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. Ubuntu is primarily designed to be used on personal computers, although a server editions does also. The gpl is a free software license, and therefore it permits people to use and even redistribute the software without being required to pay anyone a fee for doing so. Ubuntu is an opensource operating system os based on the debian gnu linux distribution. Going to the basics of and licensing concept, a license is a protection provided to safeguard the creative work of t. This means that any software that is written based on any gpl. What is free software and why is it so important for. The mit license also known as the x11 license or mit x license is a software license that was originally developed at the massachusetts institute of technology. If you have a particular question about a free software license, theres a good chance youll find an answer on one of the pages below. The gnu general public license gpl is a free, copyleft license used primarily for software. Short for general public license, the license that accompanies some open source software that details how the software and its accompany source code can be freely copied, distributed and modified. Gnu free documentation license simple english wikipedia.
Definition gnu general public license gpl the gnu general public license gnu, gpl, or gpl is a free software license originally written by richard stallman of the free software foundation, which guarantees that users are free to use, share, and modify the software without paying anyone for it. Gpl is the acronym for gnus general public license, and its one of the most. The license allows developers and companies to use and integrate a software component released under the lgpl into their own even proprietary software without being required by the terms of a strong copyleft license to release the source code of their own components. 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. That free software happens to often be free of charge is a side effect of this. See the history section below for a list of changes that affect the definition of free software. Licensesgnu gpl 2 definition of free cultural works. If youre using a software module licensed under gpl, your software will fall under the definition of derived work, and thus has be licensed under the gpl as well. The gnu general public license gnu gpl or gpl is a widely uised free saftware license, which guarantees end uisers the freedom tae run, study, share an modify the saftware. If you sell me your gpllicensed software for 100, i am free to resell copies for 50.
Last modified, 20070322 the content on this website, of which is the author, is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4. Open source materials means any software in source or object code form that is subject to a license or other agreement commonly referred to as an open source, free software, copyleft or community source code license including any code or library licensed under the gnu general public license, gnu lesser general public license, bsd license, or any other public source code license arrangement. Failure to adhere to software license agreement terms often incurs criminal charges related to licensed intellectual property ip and ed material. My uncertainty is fed by this post about mongodb which is agpl and even more by the comments below. The series was presented by david heimann, who also acted as a mentor to the contestants. Software licensed with any gnu license can be used and even modified everywhere, including in a corporate environment, without any restrictions. Software licensed with any gnu license can be used and even modified. Why should i use the gnu gpl rather than other free software licenses.
Gnu general public license, version 3 free software foundation. Frequently asked questions about the gnu licenses gnu project. A practical guide to gpl compliance software freedom law. It was made up by the free software foundation fsf for the gnu project. From complete operating systems like gnu, to over 5,000 individual programs and tools listed in the fsfunesco free software directory. Without a special license, these uses are normally prohibited by law or commercial license. What is gnu general public license gnu gpl or simply gpl. We recommend that people consider using the gnu agpl for any software. The gnu general public license is available in these formats.
Can gpl licenced software be used in corporate environments. A free license or open license is a license agreement which contains provisions that allow other individuals to reuse another creators work, giving them four major freedoms. The license wis oreeginally written bi richard stallman o the free software foundation fsf for the gnu project, an grants the recipients o a computer program the richts o the free software definition. It is available in several different versions, but the most popular is the gnulinux system, which uses the linux kernel. From time to time we revise this definition, to clarify it or to resolve questions about subtle issues. The free software definition presents the criteria for whether a particular software program qualifies as free software. The gnu general public license is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works. Since the gnulinux system is a popular version of linux, it is often referred to as simply linux. 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. This license is aimed at giving and protecting all users unlimited freedom to use, study, and privately modify the software, and if the user adheres to the terms and conditions of the gpl, freedom to redistribute the software or any modifications to it. It was originally called the gnu library gpl, but the name was changed to remove the.
The open source definition was originally derived from the debian free software guidelines dfsg. The gnu free documentation license gnu fdl or simply gfdl is a copyleft license for open content such as software. A copy of that license is included in this document on page x. The fsf maintains historic articles covering free software philosophy and maintains the free software definition to show clearly what must be true about a particular software program for it to be considered free software.
Html, plain text, odf, docbook v4 or v5, texinfo, latex, markdown, and rtf. So you wouldnt sell the software itself anyone can undercut your price, but services around that software setup, support, bugfixes, warranties, amon mar 12 14. Agpl is a fairly new license that was meant to go gplovernetworks. Gnu general public license, version 3 spdx short identifier. This ensures that creators who modify and distribute software that has a gnu gpl license, are also required to use the gnu gpl license for their own work. Top 10 gnu gpl license questions answered whitesource. The gnu general public license, often shortened to gnu gpl or simply gpl, lists terms and conditions for copying, modifying and distributing free software. It premiered on 10 may 2009, and episodes aired twice weekly on tuesdays at 7. Gnu is composed wholly of free software, most of which is licensed under the gnu projects own general public license gnu is a recursive acronym for gnus not unix. The gnu affero general public license is based on the gnu gpl, but has an additional term to allow users who interact with the licensed software over a network to receive the source for that program. Frequently answered questions open source initiative. However be aware that if you or the company ever make changes to the software and want to distribute it, it must be distributed with full source code, on the same license terms as the original software. The gnu lesser general public license is meant for free software that allows linking with nonfree software. We have designed this license in order to use it for manuals for free software, because free software needs free documentation.