A question about the GPL
I couldn't think of a better place to ask this right now, so please bear with me...
Imagine that I work for a software company. My boss tells me that a customer wants an application to do X. I write the application, but I use some icons released under the GPL in that application. Can my company legally sell that application under a proprietary, closed-source license if those GPL'd icons are in there?
The closest answer to this that I found on the GPL website was the question about programs using GLP'd libraries. In the case of a library you would have to release the application under the GPL because "the program as it is run includes the library."
From what I understand if the GPL'd graphics are compiled-in then the program would have to be released under the GPL. (Tell me if I'm wrong here.)
But (and here is where I am uncertain) if the icons were included in a separate package and are installed to some directory (say /usr/local/share/MyApplication/graphics/
I'm not a lawyer, so some of the legalese in the GPL goes over my head. But if one of you who knows more about the finer points of the GPL I'd appreciate some help.
Imagine that I work for a software company. My boss tells me that a customer wants an application to do X. I write the application, but I use some icons released under the GPL in that application. Can my company legally sell that application under a proprietary, closed-source license if those GPL'd icons are in there?
The closest answer to this that I found on the GPL website was the question about programs using GLP'd libraries. In the case of a library you would have to release the application under the GPL because "the program as it is run includes the library."
From what I understand if the GPL'd graphics are compiled-in then the program would have to be released under the GPL. (Tell me if I'm wrong here.)
But (and here is where I am uncertain) if the icons were included in a separate package and are installed to some directory (say /usr/local/share/MyApplication/graphics/
I'm not a lawyer, so some of the legalese in the GPL goes over my head. But if one of you who knows more about the finer points of the GPL I'd appreciate some help.
