General Public License

legal document

Also known as: GPL

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The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

July 16, 2026

Quick Summary

The General Public License (GPL) is a type of license that grants permission to copy and reproduce intellectual property, most commonly software. It is a form of copyleft, which protects social interests in knowledge creation by vesting copyright control in a large community.

The GPL allows users to run, modify, copy, and distribute software. However, this is on the condition that the source code remains open and publicly available. Any modifications or improvements made to the software must also be distributed under the same GPL terms. This ensures that the software and its derivatives remain free and accessible. The concept of copyleft, and the GPL, were significantly advanced by Richard Stallman and the GNU Project.12

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Hacker culture
…his ends, Stallman wrote the General Public License (GPL), a document attached to computer code that would legally require anyone distributing that code to make available any of their modifications and distributed works (a property Stallman called “copyleft”). In effect, he sought to codify the hacker ethos. By the end…
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…his ends, Stallman wrote the General Public License (GPL), a document attached to computer code that would legally require anyone distributing that code to make available any of their modifications and distributed works (a property Stallman called “copyleft”). In effect, he sought to codify the hacker ethos. By the end…
Read More