The GPL gives you the freedom to use the product in any way that you choose to use it, so you cannot misuse a product licensed under GPL. Proprietary licenses can of course limit your use of a product. From the GPL: "... 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 ..."
Indeed you can modify a GPL'd software to your heart's content and not make public a single byte of your enhancements. But if you distribute or publish your enhanced software, then you must make the source code for your enhancements available to the recipient. The GPL (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html or http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt) is well worth a read by anyone involved in free and open source software (if for no other reason than to dispel the clouds of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt spread by organizations that feel threatened by open source). It's only a couple of pages of plain English, free of legalese. -- Bhaskar On Thu, 2005-03-17 at 15:11 -0800, Greg Woodhouse wrote: > But if I use a product in a way that is inconsistent with the license, > couldn't that be called misuse of the product? I'm not so sure the > title was misleading. ------------------------------------------------------- SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users. Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=6595&alloc_id=14396&op=click _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
