Part I
Detailed Analysis of the GNU GPL and Related Licenses

This part of the tutorial gives a comprehensive explanation of the most popular Free Software copyright license, the GNU General Public License (“GNU GPL”, or sometimes just “GPL”) – both version 2 (“GPLv2”) and version 3 (“GPLv3”) – and teaches lawyers, software developers, managers and businesspeople how to use the GPL (and GPL’d software) successfully both as a community-building “Constitution” for a software project, and to incorporate copylefted software into a new Free Software business and in existing, successful enterprises.

To benefit from this part of the tutorial, readers should have a general familiarity with software development processes. A basic understanding of how copyright law applies to software is also helpful. The tutorial is of most interest to lawyers, software developers and managers who run or advise software businesses that modify and/or redistribute software under the terms of the GNU GPL (or who wish to do so in the future), and those who wish to make use of existing GPL’d software in their enterprise.

Upon completion of this part of the tutorial, readers can expect to have learned the following:

1 What Is Software Freedom?
 1.1 The Free Software Definition
 1.2 How Does Software Become Free?
 1.3 A Community of Equality
2 A Tale of Two Copyleft Licenses
 2.1 Historical Motivations for the General Public License
 2.2 Proto-GPLs And Their Impact
 2.3 The GNU General Public License, Version 1
 2.4 The GNU General Public License, Version 2
 2.5 The GNU General Public License, Version 3
 2.6 The Innovation of Optional “Or Any Later” Version
 2.7 Complexities of Two Simultaneously Popular Copylefts
3 Running Software and Verbatim Copying
 3.1 GPLv2 §0: Freedom to Run
 3.2 GPLv2 §1: Verbatim Copying
4 Derivative Works: Statute and Case Law
 4.1 The Copyright Act
 4.2 Abstraction, Filtration, Comparison Test
 4.3 Analytic Dissection Test
 4.4 No Protection for “Methods of Operation”
 4.5 No Test Yet Adopted
 4.6 Cases Applying Software Derivative Work Analysis
 4.7 How Much Do Derivative Works Matter?
5 Modified Source and Binary Distribution
 5.1 GPLv2 §2: Share and Share Alike
 5.2 GPLv2 §3: Producing Binaries
6 GPL’s Implied Patent Grant
7 Defending Freedom on Many Fronts
 7.1 GPLv2 §4: Termination on Violation
 7.2 GPLv2 §5: Acceptance, Copyright Style
 7.3 GPLv2 §6: GPL, My One and Only
 7.4 GPLv2 Irrevocability
 7.5 GPLv2 §7: “Give Software Liberty or Give It Death!”
 7.6 GPLv2 §8: Excluding Problematic Jurisdictions
8 Odds, Ends, and Absolutely No Warranty
 8.1 GPLv2 §9: FSF as Stewards of GPL
 8.2 GPLv2 §10: Relicensing Permitted
 8.3 GPLv2 §11: No Warranty
 8.4 GPLv2 §12: Limitation of Liability
9 GPL Version 3
 9.1 Understanding GPLv3 As An Upgraded GPLv2
 9.2 GPLv3 §0: Giving In On “Defined Terms”
 9.3 GPLv3 §1: Understanding CCS
 9.4 GPLv3 §2: Basic Permissions
 9.5 GPLv3’s views on DRM and Device Lock-Down
 9.6 GPLv3 §3: What Hath DMCA Wrought
 9.7 GPLv3 §4: Verbatim Copying
 9.8 GPLv3 §5: Modified Source
 9.9 GPLv3 §6: Non-Source and Corresponding Source
 9.10 GPLv3 §7: Understanding License Compatibility
 9.11 GPLv3 §8: A Lighter Termination
 9.12 GPLv3 §9: Acceptance
 9.13 GPLv3 §10: Explicit Downstream License
 9.14 GPLv3 §11: Explicit Patent Licensing
 9.15 GPLv3 §12: Familiar as GPLv2 §7
 9.16 GPLv3 §13: The Great Affero Compromise
 9.17 GPLv3 §14: So, When’s GPLv4?
 9.18 GPLv3 §15–17: Warranty Disclaimers and Liability Limitation
10 The Lesser GPL
 10.1 The First LGPL’d Program
 10.2 What’s the Same?
 10.3 Additions to the Preamble
 10.4 An Application: A Work that Uses the Library
 10.5 The Library, and Works Based On It
 10.6 Subtleties in Defining the Application
 10.7 LGPLv2.1 §6 & LGPLv2.1 §5: Combining the Works
 10.8 Distributing Works Based On the Library
 10.9 And the Rest
11 LGPLv3
 11.1 Section 0: Additional Definitions
 11.2 LGPLv3 §1: Exception to GPLv3 §3
 11.3 LGPLv3 §2: Conveying Modified Versions
 11.4 LGPLv3 §3: Object Code Incorporating Material from Library Header Files
 11.5 LGPLv3 §4: Combined Works
12 Integrating the GPL into Business Practices
 12.1 Using GPL’d Software In-House
 12.2 Business Models
 12.3 Ongoing Compliance