How to distribute copyrighted resources with and open source project?

Question

I would like to create an open source GPLv3 project that will work with other resources that are under different types of copyright (e.g. free to use, but must not sell). Because of this, I can't include the 3rd party resources in the main project's open source repository.

So I tought I would keep the core project separated under GPLv3, then have a private project that include the core and the 3rd party resources and create a "compiled" release that would be released under a more restrictive license that statisfy the 3rd party licenses. This way the goat has enough to eat and the cabbage also remains.

Can I do it this way? If not, how should I handle the situation?

Answer 1

Assuming you are the copyright holder for all the code, then yes you can do this. But as I understand things, no other entity will be able to compliantly create a derived work and distribute it because of the incompatibility of the licenses for the code and the "resources". This problem doesn't apply to you since you're the owner of the code and hence not bound by the GPL3 license.

My recommendation would be to either find alternate resources which have a GPL3 compatible license, or release your code under a license which is compatible with the resources, so that your licensees can release modified works.

Try http://choosealicense.com/ for help with choosing another license.