GNU Library General Public Licence

I believe in free software and the idea of not duplicating effort; that's why I have made all of my widgets freeware. In the past, I have used sort of the standard "I disclaim all warranties" copywrite because I have always felt that the GNU General public licence was too restrictive.

For example, a single GPL'd subroutine makes an entire program fall under the GPL. I am also a professional programmer, so the GPL rules out any uses of GPL'd subroutines in commercial applications. While I am obviously not opposed for people being compensated for their work, I don't believe that ancillary subroutines should require an entire (large) program to fall under the GPL.

That is where the GNU Library General Public Licence comes in. It is a less restrictive version of the GPL that among other things allows the use of the GPL'd software in non-free programs. I am changing all of my programs to use the Library GPL, because it also ensures that anyone who makes modifications to my software will also be required to share source code, and thereby give something back to the user community as I have tried to do.

Read the GNU file LICENCE for complete details, but the following is a summary of what I believe the Licence says (but, don't quote me on it):

(Here, "library" refers to the software under the GNU Library GPL.)

• You can use the library in non-free programs as long as you include the source to the library
• Source code that is your own, and contains no library code, may be licenced in any manner you wish (including commercial, but you must ship source to the library)
• Any modifications to the library itself must remain under the Library GPL
• If your program is a derivative of the library and cannot be separated from the library, than your program must fall under the Library GPL

For all the details, see the GNU Library General Public Licence included with the software distribution.