Dear All, There seemed to be a great debate a few years back regarding whether a company could augment GPL software for its own, private use and never release any modified sources. The general consensus from googling around seems to be: yes, GPL does allow that (doesn't bode well for dual licensing which relies on the viral, er, reciprocal qualities of GPL, especially since the majority of software development occurs within private company use...)
I'd like to know the parameters or limits of this, if any. For example, Trolltech seems to take a severe view of distribution in GPL, possibly because their old QPL explicitly disallows internal distribution without opening the code. See http://www.trolltech.com/developer/faqs/license_gpl.html#q112. In particular, if a company augments a GPL software, it can distribute and copy this to all its designated agents, everywhere its jurisdiction occurs? How about company "divisions" which are legally and logically part of the company? How about external consultants and contractors bound by an NDA to the company or some other sort of legality, are they allowed to receive, copy and distribute the software as well (within the bounds of the company)? Cheers, Glen Low, Pixelglow Software www.pixelglow.com -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
