View source for GNU General Public License

The '''GNU General Public License''' ('''GNU GPL''' or '''GPL''') is the most widely used [[Free software license|free software license]], which guarantees end users (individuals, organizations, companies) the freedoms to run, study, share (copy), and modify the software.

== Description ==

The GPL demands both of these principles:

* The software must be [[free software]]
* If the software is [[Copyleft|copylefted]], the license requires that those rights to be retained. 

The license was originally written by [[Richard Stallman]] of the [[Free Software Foundation]] (FSF) for the [[GNU project]].

In other words, the GPL grants the recipients of a computer program the rights of the Free Software Definition and uses copyleft to ensure the freedoms are preserved whenever the work is distributed, even when the work is changed or added to.

The GPL is a copyleft license, which means that derived works can only be distributed under the same license terms.

This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the [[BSD licenses]] and the [[MIT License]] are the standard examples. GPL was the first copyleft license for general use.

== See also ==

* [[BSD licenses]]
* [[Free Software Foundation]]
* [[Free software license]]
* [[Intellectual property]]
* [[GNU Lesser General Public License]]
* [[MIT License]]
* [[Permissive free software licenses]]
* [[Richard Stallman]]

== External links ==

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License GNU General Public License]

[[Category:Intellectual property]][[Category:Software licenses]]