Expert Opinion: «Information Technologies and Intellectual Property» questions and answers

4 july 2024

Services and information

National Center of Intellectual Property publishes answers to the questions posed by the participants of the round table «Information Technologies and Intellectual Property» at the TIBO 2024 forum.

Question: When developing software, a developer uses an open source license under the terms of the GPL. The terms of the open source license state that derivative works must be distributed under the GPL. Does this mean that the developer is obliged to publish the source code of the created (derivative) work?

Response provided by Kirill Laptev (Partner at Anischenko Laptev law firm, member of the Advisory Board at the National Personal Data Protection Center of the Republic of Belarus):

– Yes, as a general rule, the terms of the GPL require mandatory publication of a modified version of the source code under the same terms when distributing derivative software, i.e., under the same license. As an exception, the obligation to publish a modified version of the source code may not arise when developing open source software under the GPL for internal use in the developer's organization.

A recording of the roundtable is available at this link.

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Photo: NCIP