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\begin{document}

\begin{titlepage}

{\Large

\begin{center}

\vspace{.5in}

{\sc The GNU General Public License for Businesspeople and Developers } \\

\vspace{1in}

A Tutorial By:

\vspace{.3in}

Bradley M. Kuhn

Executive Director

Free Software Foundation

\end{center}

}

\vfill

{\parindent 0in

Copyright \copyright{} 2003 \hspace{.2in} Free Software Foundation, Inc.

\vspace{.3in}

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire document is permitted in

any medium, provided this notice is preserved.

}

\end{titlepage}

\begin{abstract}

This tutorial gives a section-by-section explanation of the most popular

Free Software copyright license, the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL),

and teaches software developers, managers and businesspeople how to use

the GPL and GPL'ed software successfully in new Free Software business and

in existing, successful enterprises.

Attendees should have a general familiarity with software development

processes.  A vague understanding of how copyright law applies to software

is also helpful.  The tutorial is of most interest to software developers

and managers who run software businesses that modify and/or redistribute

software under terms of the GNU GPL (or who wish to do so in the future),

and those who wish to make use of existing GPL'ed software in their

enterprise.

This tutorial introduces the GNU GPL and its terms to professionals who

are not well versed in the details of copyright law.  Presented by a

software developer and manager, this tutorial informs those who wish to

have a deeper understanding of how the GNU GPL uses copyright law to

protect software freedom and to assist in the formation of Free Software

businesses, and of the organizatinoal motivations behind the GNU GPL.

Upon completion of the tutorial, successful attendees can expect to have

learned the following:

\begin{itemize}

  \item the freedom-defending purpose of each term of the GNU GPL.

  \item the redistribution options under the GPL.

  \item the obligations when modifying GPL'ed software.

  \item how to properly apply the GPL to a new software.

  \item how to build a plan for proper and successful compliance with the GPL.

  \item the business advantages that the GPL provides.

  \item the most common business models used in conjunction with the GPL.

  \item how existing GPL'ed software can be used in existing enterprises.

\end{itemize}

\end{abstract}

\chapter{What Is Free Software?}

We begin our consideration of the GNU General Public License (herein,

abbreviated as ``GNU GPL'' or just ``GPL'') by first considering the

broader world of ``Free Software''.  The GPL was not created from a void,

rather, it was created to embody and defend a set of principles that were

set forth at the founding of the GNU project and the Free Software

Foundation (FSF), the organization that upholds, defends and promotes the

philosophy of software freedom.  To understand the point of the GPL and

its terms and conditions, we must first have a basic understanding of the

principles behind it.  The GPL is unlike most software licenses in that it

is designed to defend and uphold these principles.

\section{The Free Software Definition}

\href{http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.html}{The Free Software

  Definition} is defined in full on the Free Software Foundation website

at \verb0http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.html0.  Here, we give an

abbreviated version that will help us consider the terms of the GPL.

A particular program is Free Software if it grants you, a particular user

of that program, the following freedoms:

\begin{itemize}

\item the freedom to run the program for any purpose.

\item the freedom to change and modify the program.

\item the freedom to copy and share the program.

\item the freedom to share improved versions of the program.

\end{itemize}

\subsection{The Freedom to Run}

For a program to be Free Software, the freedom to run the program must be

completely unrestricted.  This means that any use for that software that

the user can come up with must be permitted.  Perhaps, for example, the

user has discovered an innovative new use for a particular program, one

that the programmer never could have predicted.  Such a use much not be

restricted.

\appendix

\chapter{The GNU General Public License}

\begin{center}

{\parindent 0in

Version 2, June 1991

Copyright \copyright\ 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

\bigskip

59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA

\bigskip

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies

of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

}

\end{center}

\begin{center}

{\bf\large Preamble}

\end{center}

The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to

share and change it.  By contrast, the GNU General Public License is

intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software---to

make sure the software is free for all its users.  This General Public

License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to

any other program whose authors commit to using it.  (Some other Free

Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Library General Public

License instead.)  You can apply it to your programs, too.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price.

Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the

freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service

if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it,

that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs;

and that you know you can do these things.

To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to

deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.  These

restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you

distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.

For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or

for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have.  You

must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code.  And

you must show them these terms so they know their rights.

We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2)

offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,

distribute and/or modify the software.

Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain that

everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free software.  If

the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its

recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so that any

problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original authors'

reputations.

Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents.

We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will

individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program

proprietary.  To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must

be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.

The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and

modification follow.

\begin{center}

{\large \sc Terms and Conditions For Copying, Distribution and

  Modification}

\end{center}

%\renewcommand{\theenumi}{\alpha{enumi}}

\begin{enumerate}

\addtocounter{enumi}{-1}

\item 

This License applies to any program or other work which contains a notice

placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed under the

terms of this General Public License.  The ``Program'', below, refers to

any such program or work, and a ``work based on the Program'' means either

the Program or any derivative work under copyright law: that is to say, a

work containing the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with

modifications and/or translated into another language.  (Hereinafter,

translation is included without limitation in the term ``modification''.)

Each licensee is addressed as ``you''.

Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not

covered by this License; they are outside its scope.  The act of

running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program

is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the

Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).

Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.

\item You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source

  code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously

  and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice

  and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to

  this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other

  recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program.

You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you

may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

\item

You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion

of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and

distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1

above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:

\begin{enumerate}

\item 

You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that

you changed the files and the date of any change.

\item

You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in

whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any

part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third

parties under the terms of this License.

\item

If the modified program normally reads commands interactively

when run, you must cause it, when started running for such

interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an

announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a

notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide

a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under

these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this

License.  (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but

does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on

the Program is not required to print an announcement.)

\end{enumerate}

These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole.  If

identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,

and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in

themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those

sections when you distribute them as separate works.  But when you

distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based

on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of

this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the

entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.

Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest

your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to

exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or

collective works based on the Program.

In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program

with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of

a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under

the scope of this License.

\item

You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,

under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of

Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

\begin{enumerate}

\item

Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable

source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections

1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

\item

Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three

years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your

cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete

machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be

distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium

customarily used for software interchange; or,

\item

Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer

to distribute corresponding source code.  (This alternative is

allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you

received the program in object code or executable form with such

an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)

\end{enumerate}

The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for

making modifications to it.  For an executable work, complete source

code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any

associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to

control compilation and installation of the executable.  However, as a

special exception, the source code distributed need not include

anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary

form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the

operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component

itself accompanies the executable.

If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering

access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent

access to copy the source code from the same place counts as

distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not

compelled to copy the source along with the object code.

\item

You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program

except as expressly provided under this License.  Any attempt

otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is

void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.

However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under

this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such

parties remain in full compliance.

\item

You are not required to accept this License, since you have not

signed it.  However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or

distribute the Program or its derivative works.  These actions are

prohibited by law if you do not accept this License.  Therefore, by

modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the

Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and

all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying

the Program or works based on it.

\item

Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the

Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the

original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to

these terms and conditions.  You may not impose any further

restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.

You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to

this License.

\item

If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent

infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),

conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or

otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not

excuse you from the conditions of this License.  If you cannot

distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this

License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you

may not distribute the Program at all.  For example, if a patent

license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by

all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then

the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to

refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.

If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under

any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to

apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other

circumstances.

It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any

patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any

such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the

integrity of the free software distribution system, which is

implemented by public license practices.  Many people have made

generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed

through that system in reliance on consistent application of that

system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing

to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot

impose that choice.

This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to

be a consequence of the rest of this License.

\item

If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in

certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the

original copyright holder who places the Program under this License

may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding

those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among

countries not thus excluded.  In such case, this License incorporates

the limitation as if written in the body of this License.

\item

The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions

of the General Public License from time to time.  Such new versions will

be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to

address new problems or concerns.

Each version is given a distinguishing version number.  If the Program

specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and ``any

later version'', you have the option of following the terms and conditions

either of that version or of any later version published by the Free

Software Foundation.  If the Program does not specify a version number of

this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software

Foundation.

\item

If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free

programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author

to ask for permission.  For software which is copyrighted by the Free

Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes

make exceptions for this.  Our decision will be guided by the two goals

of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and

of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.

\begin{center}

{\Large\sc

No Warranty

}

\end{center}

\item

BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY

FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN

OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES

PROVIDE THE PROGRAM ``AS IS'' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED

OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF

MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS

TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE

PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,

REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

\item

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING

WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR

REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,

INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING

OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED

TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY

YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER

PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE

POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

\end{enumerate}

\begin{center}

{\large\sc End of Terms and Conditions}

\end{center}

\section*{Appendix: How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs}

If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest

possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it

free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these

terms.

  To do so, attach the following notices to the program.  It is safest to

  attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively convey

  the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least the

  ``copyright'' line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.

\begin{quote}

one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does. \\

Copyright (C) yyyy  name of author \\

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify

it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by

the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or

(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,

but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of

MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the

GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License

along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software

Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.

\end{quote}

Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.

If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this

when it starts in an interactive mode:

\begin{quote}

Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) yyyy  name of author \\

Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'. \\

This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it

under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.

\end{quote}

The hypothetical commands {\tt show w} and {\tt show c} should show the

appropriate parts of the General Public License.  Of course, the commands

you use may be called something other than {\tt show w} and {\tt show c};

they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items---whatever suits your

program.

You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your

school, if any, to sign a ``copyright disclaimer'' for the program, if

necessary.  Here is a sample; alter the names:

\begin{quote}

Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program \\

`Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker. \\

signature of Ty Coon, 1 April 1989 \\

Ty Coon, President of Vice

\end{quote}

This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program

into proprietary programs.  If your program is a subroutine library, you

may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications

with the library.  If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library

General Public License instead of this License.

\end{document}