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If a non-profit organization runs software on its website that is modified GPL'ed software and it acknowledged to be such, do they have a legal obligation to release any changes? They are not offering binaries, they're just running it and providing public service. Does it make a difference if the original software was JavaScript (therefore users do acquire source at some point) or PHP? I have already read GNU's opinion, but it is somewhat ambiguous.

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Refer to this: programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/131264/… – Dipan Mehta Jan 30 '12 at 12:30

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GNU is very clear on that: Under the GPL, you are not legally required to offer the modified source code. The word "legitimate" in the second paragraph of the FAQ entry is a bit misleading, but they rather mean something along the lines of "reasonable, understandable".

There is a special license, the GNU Affero GPL, that handles this question differently.

There you also find a clear note about the normal GPL:

The GNU General Public License permits making a modified version and letting the public access it on a server without ever releasing its source code to the public.

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Or, in layman's terms, you are running the software, not distributing it. – tdammers Jan 30 '12 at 13:30

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