[License-discuss] Is Web application including GPL libraries covered under GPL?

[Ben Tilly]

On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 6:02 PM, John Cowan <cowan at mercury.ccil.org> wrote:
> MURAKAMI, Keiko scripsit:
>
>> Our application are made by Java, so these are not tightly linked GPL
>> libraries, because GPL libraries are located in another directory,
>> are referred or dynamic liked at live time.
>
> It is disputed whether that matters or not.  I tend to think not.
>
>> And we never deliver the application to users, we run the web
>> application on our side servers, all users just use our web service.
>
> In that case, the GPL's requirement to distribute source definitely
> does not apply, because you are not distributing anything.

Definitely?

If the web page contains copyrighted text in its source that is from
the library, then an argument can be made that you have distributed
something.  Namely a web page with a mixture of your copyrighted
works, or someone else's.  Whether this matters in any specific case
depends on all sorts of things that I'm not (as a non-lawyer)
qualified to opine on.