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I am shipping software licensed under the MIT license.
Under the application tree, I have also a file that is part of the software. Inside of this file there are the exact contents of an external library, licensed under GPL. There is also other code (by me), licensed under the MIT license. The section of this file that contains the library is left intact and the library is not altered.
Can I release my software under the MIT license? Should I include the GPL license (I'm quite sure the answer is yes)? Should I also include a README with indications such as "the part of the file X is licensed under the GPL license as it is an external library, the rest is MIT"?
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Can I use GPL-licensed code in my MIT-licensed project? No. The project as a whole must conform to the terms of the GPL license and must be distributed under the terms of that license. Therefore such a project as a whole must be distributed as GPL, but can still contain MIT-licensed software.
@eMAD parts of it can, yes. For example if it has GPLed JavaScript, then the source code for that must be available.
Furthermore, the MIT license is considered by the Free Software Foundation as compatible with the GPL and LGPL licenses (all versions). There are plenty of examples of MIT-licensed code used in combination of GPL-licensed code, for instance in the Linux Kernel.
Under the GPL, either static or dynamic linking requires the main program to be distributed under the GPL, with the result that linking a GPL-licensed library is incompatible (in licensing terms) with a proprietary program.
Can I release my software under the MIT license?
If you use GPL'ed software in your software (bring together two works) and you then distribute the new work, you have to distribute it under GPL (copyleft).
There are different flavors of GPL which has a different effect on how the copyleft works (GPL, LGPL, AGPL), so if you need more info, you need to be more specific.
Should I include the GPL license (I'm quite sure the answer is yes)?
Yes. Any of the GPL licenses requires this.
Should I also include a README with indications such as "the part of the file X is licensed under the GPL license as it is an external library, the rest is MIT"?
Yes, that is useful. However, if it is really GPL, keep in mind that next to what you write is correct, the whole package has to be distributed under GPL.
See as well
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If you own the code, if the property of the code belongs to you, you are free to change the license everytime and each time you want to, you can also release the same code under more than 1 license.
When redistributing the code obtained from a third part that is released under a GPL license, the only thing that you have to do is to left the terms of the license unchanged because the GPL is intended this way. the GPL stays GPL no matter how many developers or subjects are involved in the "distribution chain".
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