The GNU General Public License is a legal document created to protect open source software. It lists terms and conditions for the copying, modifying and redistributing of programs, keeping them open source.
The GNU GPL is applied to each program within the GNU operating system. Stallman felt that this allowed each version of a piece of software to remain as open source without infringing on copyright law.
The GNU General Public License (GPL), under which the GPL is released, was written by the Free Software Foundation. The goal of the FSF is not just to help developers with free software, but to raise funds for free software development.
Popular open source licenses are GPL v3, GPL v2, Apache 2.0, MIT, BSD, Microsoft .NET, and Microsoft Public.
Does your company use open-source software? If so, using or writing about GPL may become complicated for you.
Versions of the GNU GPL
Since the first version of the GNU General Public License was released, there have been three more versions: the second version in 1991, the third version in 2007, and most recently in 2015.
Version 1 — GPL v1 (1989)
The GNU General Public License was based on a combination of similar free software licenses used by early versions of GNU Emacs, the GNU Debugger, and the GNU C Compiler.
Each and every program on our platform is legally licensed under a license that combines the GPL, MIT, and several other open source licenses.
The GNU General Public License, which is abbreviated as the GPL, was created in order to allow open-source software to be developed on a decentralized basis.
Version 2 — GPL v2 (1991)
When it comes to creating software, GNU General Public License (GPL) v2 is a great choice. The “Liberty or Death” clause in this version of the license saw many changes in users’ freedom.
Section 7 of the GNU GPL indicates that licensees may distribute a GPL-covered work only if they can satisfy all the terms, even if there are other legal conditions in place.
After 1980 it became clear that a new license would, by 1990, be a strategic step to take. So in 1991 when the GPL v2 and LGPL were introduced, we did so with the idea of symbolizing this idea that these licenses should be used less permissively.
Version 3 — GPL v3 (2007)
The goal of the GNU General Public License is to provide an option for enterprises to share software without needing to worry about ever parting with a program. However, as advocates for free software began using the GPL-licensed programs more often, they became concerned about issues with the v2 license that might allow someone to abuse it in a manner that would set back these goals.
Keep in mind that the GNU Affero General Public License and Microsoft’s negotiations with distributors of the free and open source software weren’t the only challenges. Compatibility difficulties comparable to those posed by these licenses were also a big hurdle in Tivoization.
In June 2007, the later version of the GPL, GPL v3 open source license was released. This version of the GPL sought to address some of the issues that were left unresolved by GPL v2.
Terms and conditions of the GNU GPL
The GNU Public License (GPL) license is a free software license, which means that you must make your terms and conditions for distributing the work available to everyone who obtains it with a GPL applied to it.
The license includes the right to edit, translate, and create derivative works for which you’ll retain all legal rights.
The difference between a GPL and other licenses is that the GPL can be offered for a fee or it can be offered for free. This feature differentiates the GPL from licenses that prohibit commercial distribution of software.
The Free Software Foundation is committed to free and free software, as well as clarification of the GPL. The GPL clearly states that GPL software may be sold at any price.
The GNU General Public the License (GPL) only specifies what the recipient of a GPL software license can and cannot do with the software. There are no limitations on how difficult or easy it is to distribute this software or what type of limitation the distributor may place on how it can be distributed.
If you’re looking for your next open source project development, here are a few of the most common licenses you’ll come across.
These are some of the things that influence what type of open source license to choose.
Version 2 of the license requires that source code be provided along with precompiled binaries. Version 3, as well as a sentence of the seventh section in version three require that source code be provided along with precompiled binaries.
According to the new License, version 3 and version 2 of the license both specify that individuals who install or use your software should be sent a copy of the License along with the program. Additionally, versions 2 and 3 each call for source code in those versions to be downloaded in additional ways.
This includes downloading source code from an adjacent network server or by peer-to-peer transmission.
The GNU Public License does not allow for the copyright to be transferred over unless the author expressly conveys the rights to the GNU Project, which does nor occur very often.
Only legal copyright holders have the authority to take action for license violations.
