Open Source Software: Demystify 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.
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.
