You're confused about who the user is in this discussion. The user is the end user of software, not the developer who is using your code. GPL protects the righ

You're confused about who the user is in this discussion. The user is the end user of software, not the developer who is using your code. GPL protects the rights of end users, no matter how many developers sit in between the original code and the end user. In other words, as an end user, if I'm using a GPL program, I know that I can access the source code and fix anything I need to or change anything that needs changing. To be as specific as possible, in what I described, you don't count as a developer until you actually take your changes and give them to someone else, so distributor may be a more accurate term.