Including proprietary library in GPL software

Question

Our company is changing the direction in which the business is being run, and is now thinking of selling our hardware, while releasing most of the code under the (L)GPL license (?), however certain parts will be released as closed source libraries in order to protect our IP.

I've been reading and trying to understand the (L)GPL license and my question is can our software be licensed as (L)GPL (there is a part about system libraries, although I'm not sure if the libraries that we wish to keep close sourced can be considered system libraries?), since part of the software is not open source? If not, what would be a suitable license?

Many thanks in advance!

Answer 1

(L)GPL is to enforce making any derivative works licensed under a similar license. GPL is also viral - anything that uses the GPL code must also be GPL. So the point is that if some other product uses your code it must also be licensed appropriately.

But this enforcement isn't for products the (L)GPL solution uses itself - those products can be licenses under any license and (L)GPL doesn't touch that. For example, TortoiseSVN is GPL, but it uses Windows API and Windows is proprietary.

Answer 2

IANAL

You can license your code any way you want if you hold the copyright. You can choose to license part of it under the GPL or the LGPL. Other code can be licensed non-free. Choosing any license does not force the copyright holder to license anything else under the same license.

The copyleft effect of the GPL does apply to anybody who receives a copy of your code. He must follow the license including the use of the GPL for any modifications and derived works of your code he releases.