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010-160 · Question #45

Which one of the following statements concerning the General Public License (GPL) is true?

The correct answer is A. The GPL is designed to ensure that the source code of a software remains freely available. The GNU General Public License (GPL) is a copyleft license whose primary purpose is to keep software source code freely available to all users and derivative works.

The Linux Community and a Career in Open Source

Question

Which one of the following statements concerning the General Public License (GPL) is true?

Options

  • AThe GPL is designed to ensure that the source code of a software remains freely available.
  • BThe GPL is identical to the BSD license.
  • CGPL software may never be sold for money.
  • DIf you change a program you received under the GPL, you must send your changes to the original author for approval.
  • EGPL software may not be used to run nuclear reactors or air traffic control systems.

How the community answered

(27 responses)
  • A
    89% (24)
  • B
    7% (2)
  • D
    4% (1)

Why each option

The GNU General Public License (GPL) is a copyleft license whose primary purpose is to keep software source code freely available to all users and derivative works.

AThe GPL is designed to ensure that the source code of a software remains freely available.Correct

The fundamental design goal of the GPL is copyleft - any software distributed under the GPL must have its source code made freely available to recipients, and any derivative works must also be licensed under the GPL. This ensures software freedom is preserved through the distribution chain.

BThe GPL is identical to the BSD license.

The BSD license is a permissive license that allows proprietary derivatives, while the GPL is a copyleft license that requires derivative works to remain open source - they are fundamentally different.

CGPL software may never be sold for money.

The GPL explicitly permits selling software for money; the requirement is only that source code must be made available to recipients, not that it must be free of charge.

DIf you change a program you received under the GPL, you must send your changes to the original author for approval.

The GPL does not require sending changes to the original author for approval; it requires that source code be made available to the recipients of the binary, with no approval gate from upstream authors.

EGPL software may not be used to run nuclear reactors or air traffic control systems.

The GPL places no restrictions on the purpose or domain in which software is used; usage restrictions of that kind appear in other licenses, not the GPL.

Concept tested: GNU General Public License copyleft principles

Source: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html

Topics

#GPL#open source licenses#software freedom#source code availability

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