GNU public license and CSS [closed]

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I've created a web application that I'm going to license to other companies for a fee. To give them internal flexibility, I'd like to give them permission to alter my original code but not re-distribute or sell the code. For my base css, I'm using a WordPress Theme, which has the the following license:

License: GNU General Public License

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

If I include this css, it's not clear to me whether I can have a "dual-license" in the sense that the licensor can't re-distribute my code but they can re-distribute the css.

Answer 1

If your code is dependent on the GPLed css from the theme and you distribute the theme with your code, it would be easy to argue that your code is a derivative work and therefore would necessarily need to be licensed under the terms of the GPL.

If you want to restrict the usage of your code I recommend removing any GPL code from what you distribute (and don't require it in any way).

One way to handle this might be to distribute the code with your own css (not in any way derived from the GPLed theme) but make it compatible with the GPLed theme and let the user replace it with the GPLed theme if they want to.

Finally, and most important, if you are charging a fee for your software charge enough to pay a lawyer to answer these questions.