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If I'm writing a program under BSD, and I want to incorporate a component with a GPL license, I can't do that and continue to license the entire program to my u
by caf 5y ago
If I'm writing a program under BSD, and I want to incorporate a component with a GPL license, I can't do that and continue to license the entire program to my users under the BSD. That's the difference, and surely that's what the OP is referring to.
You can continue to offer your work to users under a BSD license, you just also have to offer the complete work to them under the GPL as well if they want - ie. your work can be "Dual BSD/GPL" license. Obviously this doesn't make other authors GPL bits you've used BSD - if someone wants to make use of rights reserved under copyright law in respect to those parts, they still need a valid license from the original author who is presumably only offering GPL.
- bscphil 5y ago> you just also have to offer the complete work to them under the GPL as well The "as well" is where your comment introduces a slight inaccuracy, because it suggests that you could offer the whole work under BSD if you wanted to. You can not. The whole reason that people who prefer permissive licenses do not use GPL code is that they want to be able to license the whole work under a permissive license, in order to be able to provide their licensees with additional freedoms.
- caf 5y agoBy "your work" I mean "everything you have authored". - The parts you've written can continue to be available under the permissive license (as can any parts you've copied from elsewhere under a permissive license); - The GPL code you didn't write can't be re-licensed by you and continues to be available under the GPL; - The complete derived work has to be made available by you under the terms of the GPL. (By "as well" I mean "as well as offering the code you wrote under whatever other license you would like").