<p>Yes but internal use is parallel to personal use which is paramount to gnu gpl philosophy. V3 closes the hole that google exploits along with other service providors. It's a Good Thing.</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Jan 5, 2012 7:10 AM, "Michael Trausch" <<a href="mailto:mike@trausch.us">mike@trausch.us</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
On 01/05/2012 06:58 AM, Jim Kinney wrote:<br>
> He harps on gnu because some other floss licenses allow a coporate<br>
> takeover with no give back. Thus the gpl v3.<br>
<br>
Well, the GPL allows it, too (even v3), just not in all the cases that<br>
other licenses do. As an example, if a corporation uses a GPL licensed<br>
product internally, they do not have to provide source code to the<br>
employees (because internal usage doesn't count as "distribution", at<br>
least here, because "distribution" requires that something be conveyed<br>
between organizations as opposed to internally).<br>
<br>
So, while it can happen that a company improves or modifies a GPL<br>
program without making its changes available, the only reason that it<br>
doesn't have to is that it isn't distributing the binaries to third<br>
parties, but retaining it for internal use only. This makes the scope<br>
very limited, but that works out alright for a company that wants to<br>
keep their modificiations private.<br>
<br>
In practice, I'm not sure that it's terribly wise to do so. An employee<br>
could very easily make the mistake that it's GPL licensed software and<br>
that means that they could distribute it to a third party without worry.<br>
But they could find themselves fired if they force the corporation to<br>
publish it's modified version without someone approving distribution.<br>
<br>
The fact that the GPL only comes into play at "distribution" time makes<br>
that all possible.<br>
<br>
--- Mike<br>
<br>
--<br>
A man who reasons deliberately, manages it better after studying Logic<br>
than he could before, if he is sincere about it and has common sense.<br>
--- Carveth Read, “Logic”<br>
<br>
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<br></blockquote></div>