[Gllug] [OT] Selling GPL

[Stephen Nelson-Smith]

Semi-hyopthetical situation, part stemming from pub argument, but with
its feet in real life:

Suppose a company has written a piece of software that uses some open
source tools as a central part of the functionality.  For one part
they've actually added to one of the tools some class methods and
submitted them upstream.  The company has charged an amount for
developing the software as a solution for a client.  It is clear that
IPR remain with the company who wrote it.  Because the code uses GPL
code, is it the case that it has to be released as GPL too?

The remainder assumes yes - if no, there's some other stuff to consider.

Suppose the client asks the company to develop a few more features,
before they "take over" - by which it is understand that they wish use
and modify the tool that the company has written.  Of course, if the
company is obliged to release the source code, the client can, of
course, do just that - resulting in the company not getting continued
business developing the product.

The code is in two parts - one which produces a MySQL database, and
one which queries that database and presents the results.  The client
seems to want to have access to the database so they can write their
own code to query and present the data.

How might such a situation best handled, from a business perspective?
If the code to produce the DB is opensource, it can't be witheld it if
the client don't pay an amount, but the company feels they ought to be
charging a fee for access to it, as the real value is in the
algorithms used to parse and produce the data.

Incidentally, this raises a puzzling question in my mind.  In what
sense is software ever released or licensed?  If I knock something
together on  the train, am I obliged to release its source code right
away?  What about if I check out some GPL code into a branch and hack
on it - at what stage am I obliged to publish it?  Is it ok to just
throw it away?  Can someone else use that branch legally?  In our
example case, the SQL to produce the database - why would that be GPL?
 Suppose I decided I didn't want to 'release' some software - I just
wanted to host it on a private server and charge people to use it.  Is
the rule that if the code is GPL I must release it if requested?

How might some of these issues be got around?  Supose someone started
writing a new application - to prevent the situation described above,
where they invest time in developing a product of some value, only to
be obliged to give away the code for the whole thing.  Would they have
to not use any GPL tools?

I guess companies must do this all the time - they make money on
support, and they offer the product at a price, but the opensource but
is always available for free.

I appreciate the lack of lawyers, but any experiences / advice on
making money on GPL code that has been developed would be welcome.

S.
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