Linux Online - Fair and share

Fair and share


Publication:	Guardian	Date:	Nov 18 2004
Reporter:	Mary Branscombe

Do you use open source software? You probably do. If you have a GPS navigator, a wireless router or an NAS network storage device, they may well be based on an embedded version of Linux. This is available free, complete with source code, which is attractive for developers who don't want to start from scratch. But if you are not sure what the Free Software Foundation's General Public Licence (GPL), which governs Linux source code, means by "free", you could end up in court or, like TomTom Software, making a significant donation as an apology.

Briefly, the GPL means that if you base your program on source code protected by the GPL, you have to make your source code available to others in the same way the original was available to you. Others can use it, change it and make their source code available in turn.