Re: GPL "grey area"

[Paul Jarc]

"spiro is" <spirois@mail.com> wrote:
> Would my company be forced to release our current system under the GPL
> if we provided a way for users who are already logged into our system
> to "auotmatically login" to the open source content management system?

[IANAL.]  Since you own the copyright on both of these programs, you
can release them under whatever license you like.  The license places
constraints on what others may do with your software; you ourself are
not bound by it, being the copyright owner.  So you can certainly
release one under the GPL and keep the other proprietary, but
depending on the details of how the two interact, users may or may not
be able to benefit from the GPL's intended freedoms.  If the free
program links to object files from the non-free program, and is not
complete on its own without those files, then I think users may not be
able to modify and redistribute the ree program, since it would also
be a derivative work of the non-free program, and the GPL would
require them to redistribute the whole under the GPL, or not at all.


paul