Open Source Software: Demystifying the GPL

If you use Firefox then you are using Open Source Software. Learn how your business can benefit from Open Source Software in this informative 90 minute seminar. While other software licenses contain limitations and restrictions on their use, GPL licensed Open Source Software is flexible and cost effective.

What is Open Source Software

There are entire organizations dedicated to the principal that software should be free and accessible. One example is the Free Software Foundation and its GNU GPL, a rather long acronym for a very reasonable concept: “General Public License.” Almost all software made originally for Linux and Linux itself operate under this license.

Software Licenses

The vast majority of software applications are obtained by purchasing a license. The software license is an agreement between the purchaser and the vendor as to how, where and by whom the software is to be used.

Under a software license, the licensee is permitted to use the licensed software in compliance with the specific terms of the license. If there is a breach of the license, depending on the license it may result in termination of the license, and potentially the right of the owner to sue.

Proprietary

Proprietary licensing refers to software that has restrictions on using and copying it, usually enforced by a proprietor. The prevention of use, copying, or modification can be achieved by legal or technical means.

Proprietary software licensing is intended to protect the developer from overt copyright infringement however in increasingly common cases proprietary software licenses are being used as an avenue to:

• Charge more money for software

• Control updates and upgrades to the software

• Identify software buyers and owners and their locations and their use of the software

Today you can not install certain software on your business computer without “registering” its use automatically over the internet. Once it is “registered” the continued use of the software is tracked through the internet.

General Public License attempts to address this more and more imposing principal of software use by simply identifying and granting recognition to the software writer while allowing the maximum flexibility to the user.

GPL

The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is the most popular free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman

The way the GPL license works is simple, if you do not abide by the GPL's terms and conditions you do not have permission, under copyright law, to copy or distribute GPL licensed software or derivative works. It does not mean that the rules of the GPL do not apply to you and that you may use the software however you like. The default is the restrictions of copyright law, not the anarchy of the public domain.

The GPL grants full freedom to use, copy, modify, and redistribute without any restriction, other than barring you from altering the license itself, claiming authorship of the application or selling the application outright.

Free Software

Free software is software which grants recipients the freedom to modify and redistribute the software. This would normally be prohibited by Copyright law, so with free software, the copyright holder must give recipients the explicit permission to do these things.

This grant of rights is called a license, and if the above noted freedoms are included in the grant, the license is a free software license.

Shareware

Shareware is a marketing method for software, whereby a trial version is distributed in advance and without payment, as is common for proprietary software. Shareware software is typically obtained free of charge, either by downloading from the internet or on magazine cover-disks.

A user tries out the program, and thus shareware has also been known as 'try before you buy', demoware, trialware and by many other names. A shareware program is accompanied by a request for payment, and the software's distribution license often requires such a payment.

Payment is often required once a set period of time has elapsed after installation.