What is really accepted as an open source project for GPLv3?

Question

Let's say I want to use a Javascript component that is under the GPLv3 license.

That forces me to license my product under an open source license compatible with GPLv3. So, let's say I have an agency and I want to build a website for it.

What's the product in which I'll be using the component? My website right?

Can I just build my site, silently make it open source in Github under GPLv3 and use the component under GPLv3?

Who cares about the license of my site? Who cares if I make it open source? No one is really going to look at the open source project, as I won't put any link to its Github URL anywhere else. I'm just making it open source because the component I want to use requieres it. And honestly, there's no much of a difference. If my site has cero backend work, any website source code is visible to anyone who wants to see it. (right click > view source code). So technically I do not lose anything open sourcing it.

If anyone, by chance, finds my github account and finds the site, good for them, my business, what generates me money, is the agency and not my site, which is my "open source project".

So... my question is, what is it really considered an open source project?

Can any business silently upload their site in Github, put a License.txt with the GPLv3 content and use any component under GPlv3 no matter what?

Answer 1

The GPLv3 triggers its source disclosure requirements when you convey GPL-covered software. Conveying is defined as something that allows others to make a copy (that they can then convey in turn). If you offer some JavaScript file for download on your site (which is necessary for that JS to be executable) then that is a kind of conveying.

When you convey GPL-covered software, the GPL requires you for example to give users of that software a copy of the license, to keep copyright notices intact, and to offer them the Corresponding Source code.

• Offering the source code is more active than just noting that the code is available somewhere. At the least the GPL-covered file should contain a license header that points to the source code. Ideally, you have a clearly reachable page on your website that collects third party attribution notices.

• The downloaded JavaScript file might not be the Corresponding Source in the sense of the GPL. The Corresponding source is the preferred format of making modifications, and could include additional build scripts (e.g. like a package.json file if you are using NPM). If your website serves minified JavaScript, that would not be the Corresponding Source either.

Complying with the GPL for client-side JavaScript is quite tricky because it is not quite clear what the scope of the GPL would be. For example, you might be using multiple plugins that are completely separate. It is also not obvious whether a GPL license on JavaScript code will also extend to HTML templates.

• Clearly, the GPL does not extend to the content of the website, at most to the theme & JavaScript code that runs on the page.
• It is safest to assume that the GPL extends to all software that runs within the HTML frame, unless you can argue that some widgets are clearly separate so that the complete website is more akin to an aggregation of these programs, rather than a single combined program.
• For all software that is combined with the GPL-covered component into a single program, you must actively offer the Corresponding Source under the terms of the GPL or a compatible license.
• A GitHub repository for this code sounds appropriate. I would try to structure this code as a kind of NPM library or as a theme that you can easily reference from your website source.
• You do not have to publish the source code of your entire website. In particular using client-side GPL code does not generally imply a requirement to publish any server-side code.

The intention of the GPL is that end users are free to run, inspect, modify, and share the software that they have received. To do this, it is necessary that they are informed of their rights under the GPL and are actively offered the source code.