GPL 2.0 Free Telerik Extensions for ASP.NET MVC [closed]

Question

Is my ASP.NET MVC project automatically GPL 2.0 licensed by including these libraries? I always find this confusing with the GPL.

Answer 1

Yes, it is. You'll be statically referencing their code. That clearly falls under the "requires a GPL-compatible license" areas.

You can, of course, buy a commercial license or use a different component if you don't want to GPL your project.

Answer 2

Your application only requires a GPL license when you distribute your application.

For example:

Scenario #1: You develop a website which uses a mysql database and the Telerik ASP.NET MVC controls (both GPL Open Source licenses). You then deploy your application to your web server and users interact with your application UI via their browsers then you do not need to GPL your software since you have not distributed the software to the users.

Scenario #2: You then create an installer for your application and sell your application with the intention of customers installing and running the application on their own servers then your software would need to be GPL licensed since you have distributed your software. NOTE: you can't circumvent this by not including mysql in your installation package and requesting the user download and install this independantly.

Hope this helps.