Re: GNU

["Robert G. Brown" <rgb at phy dot duke dot edu>]

On Mon, 15 Nov 2004, Przemyslaw Sliwa wrote:

> 
> Is it not possible even if I do not sell the code and use it for our in-house
> applications?

Read the GPL itself -- it is readily available.  So is a whole lot of
stuff written ABOUT the GPL and what you can and can't do in plain
English.

Now, I'm not a lawyer and if you're asking on behalf of the bank you'd
better have its lawyers read the GPL before assuming that what I say
below is correct.  In my opinion...

The GPL doesn't require that you "publish" code for every single thing
you ever write using GPL'd tools and program components.  I can and do
write code all the time that uses the GSL and "most" of it isn't
"published", although I'm not particularly trying to hide it.

The GPL restricts your ability to distribute binaries without also
providing access to their source.  It is fairly open about how that
access is provided -- you could just set up a web link and dump all the
source tarballs there without much of an index or organization and I
think you'd comply with the GPL.  You might even be able to provide
sources on request and not make them immediately web-retrievable as the
GPL itself precedes the web and most electronic distribution schema.
However, you DO have to make it possible for anybody to whom you
distribute a binary copy of the program to get to the source if they
wish for at most a charge for the media on which the source is provided.

However, the "you" involved is really the owner of the copyright of the
program in question.  In your case the bank itself is the owner of the
GPL-source-derived applications (assuming you are producing them as work
done for hire, not producing them for yourself and selling them to the
bank with the possibility of reselling them to others as well).  The
bank doesn't have to publish its own source to itself -- the concept
obviously fails.  Nor is it obligated to reveal trade secrets or
proprietary tricks that might be embedded in the GPL-source-derived
applications to third parties, as long as it doesn't distribute its
binaries to third parties.

As far as my own reading of the GPL are concerned, a perfectly valid
business plan for a company that wishes to use code that is GPL either
directly or by inheritance is to ensure that all such software be
installed on systems owned by the company itself.  The company can then
sell the USE of those systems and that software to individuals who move
their DATA onto those systems for processing.  The web actually makes
this sort of business model pretty easy.

To provide a concrete example, if I build a website where you click a
button and a GSL-derived application generates a random number and
prints it on the screen, you do not have to provide source for the
program that the web interface talks to even though the GSL is GPL'd in
viral form. It runs only on >>your<< system, and you already have the
source (and hence comply with the GPL).  Similarly, I don't have to
provide the source for every physics application I ever write run,
either, unless I distribute the application (for money or not) to third
parties, and even then I don't HAVE to give them the source right then,
I just have to ensure that they can freely obtain it if they want it.

Hope this helps.  If it doesn't, read the GPL yourself.  It is pretty
understandable, and where it isn't, seek out a lawyer.  Where a bank is
involved, very definitely seek out a lawyer anyway, but I think that
what I wrote above is correct.

   rgb

> 
> Thanks for help,
> 
> --------------------------------------------------
> Deutsche Bank AG
> Risk Controlling
> Credit Risk Engineering & Implementation
>             /  Daily Credit Risk
> 
> Tel.:  (+44 20) 754 59676 London
> Fax:   (+44 20) 754  71060 London
> 
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-- 
Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb@phy.duke.edu