Re: [Business in the open? (GPL Vs. ...)]

[Arun Sharma <adsharma@xxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Jun 01, 1999 at 05:37:15PM -0500, SWAPS wrote:
> > A Doubt:
> > 	Companies may not like to reveal their modus operandi to the world.
> > So,the OSS which is customised for the company must be availabe to the
> > company alone. Does GPL provide for this? 
> > 
> 
> There may be a solution by making a modular system. The base system can be
> under a liberal license like LGPL etc and the modules may be under all kinds
> of license. You can have modules like CORE system with submodules like
> printing/FAX/report system is under GPL and FINANCE/HR module with submodules
> under different license.

The only caveat being: Linus won't accept code whose sole purpose is to
enable a binary only module. As long as you are using standard
system calls and interfaces, you are fine.

To answer the original question: the company doesn't have to reveal the
sources under GPL, as long as they don't publish the binaries. If you
publish the binaries, you must publish source.

	-Arun

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