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General Public License

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General Public License

(legal)
(GPL, note US spelling) The licence applied to most software from the Free Software Foundation and the GNU project and other authors who choose to use it.

The licences for most software are designed to prevent users from sharing or changing it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee the freedom to share and change free software - to make sure the software is free for all its users. The GPL is designed to make sure that anyone can distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if they wish); that they receive source code or can get it if they want; that they can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that they know they can do these things. The GPL forbids anyone to deny others these rights or to ask them to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for those who distribute copies of the software or modify it.

See also General Public Virus.
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GNU General Public License

A software license from the Free Software Foundation (FSF) that ensures every user receives the essential freedoms that define "free" software, which is free of restrictions (see free software). Also called "GPL" and "GNU GPL," it was created to distribute the software of the GNU operating system (see GNU). Approximately 70% of free software packages are released under this license, including most GNU programs and thousands of others. The GNU General Public License is also considered an open source license (see open source).

Copyleft, Not Copyright
The license embodies the Free Software Foundation's "copyleft" rule, which means that anyone is allowed to make changes or extend the source code and redistribute it as long as the changes are clearly marked, and the modified work is also licensed under the GNU General Public License.

Version 3 (GPLv3)
In 2007, Version 3 of the license was released to address several issues. It forbids Tivoization, which is the practice of designing hardware to prevent modified software from running on it (see Tivoization), and it is designed to yield results that are more uniform between countries despite variations in their copyright laws. GPLv3 also provides explicit protection to users and redistributors of a program against being sued for patent infringements by organizations connected with the program's development.

The GNU Lesser GPL (LGPL)
The GNU Lesser General Public License is meant for free software that allows linking with non-free software. It was originally called the "GNU Library GPL," but the name was changed to remove the implication that all libraries should be licensed this way. "Lesser" means the license does less to protect the user's freedom than the regular GNU GPL. See GNU Affero General Public License, free software, open source, copyright, Free Software Foundation and GNU.



The GPL Notification
Increasingly, people open up consumer electronics packages and find a GPL license inside. This license from NETGEAR's Google TV set-top box was printed in September 2012.
Copyright © 1981-2025 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.
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References in periodicals archive
Some licenses, such as the GNU General Public License v3.0, may require you to publish your amended version under a similar license--this is known as a 'copyleft' license.
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elPrep has been written in the Go programming language and is available through the open- source GNU Affero General Public License v3 (AGPL-3.0).
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The software is open-sourced under GNU General Public License v3.0 and available with no warranty from the developers.
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Granting public access to privately or collectively owned intellectual property is achieved by a license, the most significant of which are the General Public License used to create open source software, and the Creative Commons License.
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Perhaps the most well-known and widely used open source licenses are the various versions of the General Public License (GPL) put forth by the Free Software Foundation.
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This disclaimer supplements the one included in the General Public License. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS," WITH ALL FAULTS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, AND YOUR USE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK.
The GPL meets the UCC: does free software come with a warranty of no infringement?
The General Public License (GPL) is the most widely used open-source software license.
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The new OpenJDK-based offering will be freely distributed and licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2) with the Classpath Exception.
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There is also available a free version fully functional licensed under LGPL (GNU Lesser General Public License).
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