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GNU General Public License

series of free software licenses
Thing copyleft_free_software_license Q7603
GNU General Public License
Free Software Foundation · Public Domain · Wikimedia
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Summary

GNU General Public License is a copyleft free software license[1]. It draws 11,217 Wikipedia views per month (copyleft free software license category, ranking #1 of 5).[2]

Key Facts

  • Author: Free Software Foundation[3], Richard Stallman[4]
  • Instance of: OSI-approved license[5], free software license[6]
  • Publisher: Free Software Foundation[7]
  • Movement: free software movement[8]
  • Subclass of: software license[9]
  • Software version identifier: 3[10]
  • Commons category: GPL[11]
  • Said to be the same as: Wikipedia:Text of the GNU General Public License[12]
  • Publication date: February 25, 1989[13]
  • Has edition or translation: GNU General Public License, version 1.0 or later[14], GNU General Public License, version 2.0[15], GNU General Public License, version 2.0 or later[16], GNU General Public License, version 3.0[17], GNU General Public License v3.0 or later[18], GNU General Public License, version 1.0[19], GNU General Public License, version 2.0 or later with library exception[20]
  • Approved by: Open Source Initiative[21], Free Software Foundation[22], Debian Free Software Guidelines[23], Fedora Project[24]
  • Official website: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html[25]
  • Topic's main category: Category:GNU General Public License[26]
  • Commons gallery: GPL[27]
  • Work available at URL: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html[28]
  • Stack Exchange tag: https://stackoverflow.com/tags/gpl[29], https://opensource.stackexchange.com/tags/gpl[30]
  • Short name: GNU GPL[31], GPL[32]
  • Permits: copying[33]

Why It Matters

GNU General Public License has Wikipedia articles in 29 language editions, a strong signal of global cultural recognition.[34] It is known by 87 alternative names across languages and contexts.[35]

Related Entities

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References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

  1. [5] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  2. [6] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  3. [3] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  4. [4] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  5. [7] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  6. [8] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  7. [9] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  8. [10] ↑ . gplv3.fsf.org. gplv3.fsf.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  9. [11] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  10. [12] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  11. [13] ↑ . gnu.org. Retrieved . gnu.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  12. [14] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  13. [15] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  14. [16] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  15. [17] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  16. [18] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  17. [19] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  18. [20] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  19. [21] ↑ . opensource.org. opensource.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  20. [22] ↑ . gnu.org. gnu.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  21. [23] ↑ . wiki.debian.org. wiki.debian.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  22. [24] ↑ . fedoraproject.org. fedoraproject.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  23. [25] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  24. [26] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  25. [27] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  26. [28] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  27. [29] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  28. [30] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  29. [31] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  30. [32] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  31. [33] ↑ . wikidata.org.

Class ancestry

  1. [1] ↑ . Wikidata. wikidata.org.

Aggregate / graph-position facts

  1. [2] ↑ . Wikimedia Foundation. dumps.wikimedia.org.
  2. [34] ↑ . Wikidata sitelinks. wikidata.org.
  3. [35] ↑ . Wikidata aliases. wikidata.org.

📑 Cite this page

Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

APA 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph. (2026). GNU General Public License. Retrieved October 11, 2026, from https://4ort.xyz/entity/gnu-general-public-license
MLA “GNU General Public License.” 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph, 4ort.xyz, 11 Oct. 2026, https://4ort.xyz/entity/gnu-general-public-license.
BibTeX @misc{4ortxyz_gnu-general-public-license_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{GNU General Public License}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/gnu-general-public-license}, note = {Accessed: 2026-10-11}}
LLM prompt According to 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph (aggregator of Wikidata, Wikipedia, and authoritative open-data sources): GNU General Public License — https://4ort.xyz/entity/gnu-general-public-license (retrieved 2026-10-11)

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