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If I use GPL software in my internal/closed source app do I have to make the source publicly available? say on the Internet?
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@eMAD parts of it can, yes. For example if it has GPLed JavaScript, then the source code for that must be available.
No, you cannot. By including GPL-code, you are including a dependency of GPL-protected code, and therefore your code is only derived work from it. The terms of GPL requires that derived work is also published under GPL.
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.
GPL requires you to release the modified source code only if you release the modified program. If you've modified a program's source code for personal use, there's no need to release its source code. However, if you make the modified program available to the public, you will have to make the code public too.
This question is specifically addressed in the GPL FAQ, and it says you're allowed to use GPLed software inside a company without legally distributing it. You have no obligation to release either source or binary outside the company.
You're talking about what Richard Stallman (the person behind the Gnu movement) calls "private software". For private software, any license that allows you to use the code works, because you're not distributing it. Both the Free Software Foundation and the Open Source Initiative maintain that it should always be possible to use software privately.
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