The best analogy for the GPL that I've seen is to consider what happens with a typical for-profit corporation. If you join the company (they have to agree to hi

The best analogy for the GPL that I've seen is to consider what happens with a typical for-profit corporation. If you join the company (they have to agree to hire you for this to happen), then in the work you do for the company, you have free access to all the IP of the company, to whatever extent is it useful in the tasks you are undertaking within the company. You must, of course, promise not to leak the IP outside the company. Now consider that there is a similar organization: a not-for-profit organization of programmers for which the only qualification for entry is that you agree to use the same license as everybody else. Once you do, you are free to use all the IP of the organization. You may not, however, use the IP of the organization for things you might do under different licenses, since that is not considered to be within the scope of the organization. In short: if you don't want to join the GPL "organization", don't. But just as you don't expect to get access to Nvidia's internal IP unless you join Nvidia, don't expect to get access to the GPL organization's IP.