copyright software licensing open-source-software
Can the GPL3 and MIT license be applied to closed-source software?
<p>I recently found software containing only binaries (no access to source code) being distributed and dual-licensed under the GPL3 (<a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html</a>) and MIT (<a href="https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT</a>).</p>
<p>These two licenses tend to be applied to open-source software, so I am wondering whether it is legal to apply either of them to closed-source software (program executables/binaries, also referred to as object-code) without being obligated to provide the source code?</p>
<p>It is worth noting that the question is related to the original creator of the software applying the license to their own work, not someone creating a 'fork' of a work that is already distributed with one of these licenses.</p>

<p>In principle, yes. Remember that the copyright holder is not bound in any way by this license (because the only bad thing that can happen to you is that the copyright holder sues you - so assuming they are not schizophrenic, the copyright holder can do what they want).</p>
<p>If you can't manage to lay your hands on the source code, then you can't make copies without violating the GPL license (legal reasons). And you can't make modified versions because you need the source code for that as well (technical reasons). So if the copyright holder doesn't give you the source code then the GPL license is quite useless to you. But it's totally legal to give you a license that you can't use.</p>
<p>But if everyone else does it, because it is a breach of the license, the copyright holder can sue them. You can't, but you can tell the copyright holder. There's the possibility for example that I paid the copyright holder $10,000 for permission to use the code without following the GPL license. Then I could do exactly what you saw. It would be nice of me to give you a link to a place where you can get the source code (my code might be modified, and since the copyright holder took my money in exchange for permission, I am allowed to keep my own source code to myself).</p>
