# Licensing Julia Wrappers

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/licensing-julia-wrappers/38973>\
**Category:** Community\
**Tags:** licenses\
**Created:** [May 7, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/licensing-julia-wrappers/38973 "2020-05-07T17:17:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

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**Author:** ![StefanKarpinski](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stefankarpinski/32/24_2.png) [@StefanKarpinski](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/StefanKarpinski)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2020, 2:59pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/licensing-julia-wrappers/38973/5 "2020-05-08T14:59:45Z")

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This post might help clarify:

> [@GPL and virality](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/gpl-and-virality/7715):
>
> It’s often stated that the GPL is “viral” – i.e. that using GPL code “infects” other code. There is a viral effect for code that is not licensed under a GPL-compatible license, but not for code that is licensed under a GPL-compatible license like MIT or BSD. First, a bit on how software licenses work: a software license is a legal document in which the copyright holder – typically the author of the code – gives someone the right to use or redistribute the software under certain conditions. If y…

In particular, the fact that the wrapper is MIT-licensed is largely irrelevant: if you redistribute a derived work that includes GPL components, then you must comply with the GPL, which means that you must provide the source of the entire derived work under the terms of the GPL. If you’re just using GPL code together with proprietary code but not redistributing it, then you’re in the clear.

I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, just my understanding of the matter.

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