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| A Brief Overview of GPL |
Copyright
The GPL provides a software program's author with a
copyright that protects certain rights. Instead of guarding
the right to private intellectual property, the GPL
aims to preserve the right to keep software in the public
domain; for use, study, modification, sharing and distribution.
The GPL does not provide any warranty, and users must
be informed of this. The exception is where the software
provider chooses to supply one. |
Open
Source
Source code to any software under GPL licence must be
made available to users. Any appropriately skilled person
can therefore unravel its full intent and functionality.
The software can be modified and redistributed provided
the re-distribution is under GPL and GPL conditions
are complied with. Such conditions include prominent
notices identifying and dating anything that has been
changed from the original. |
Software
Rights
The GPL also aims to prevent the removal of GPL rights
in future re-distributions of software. Clauses in the
GPL stipulate that software under its licence can be
redistributed only under GPL, and that any patent taken
out on the software must give everyone free use of the
software. Hence a Program, copyrighted under GPL, cannot
be co-opted for private gain through proprietary patenting
or licensing of the changed product. |
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created and written by diane@minihub.org
11 Mar 2003
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