220-1102 Question 743
Single answerOpen-source licenseA small business asks a technician to deploy a free PDF editor to 30 Windows workstations. The technician finds an open-source application that can be used at no cost, but the company plans to customize the software with its own branding and then share the modified installer with a partner company. Before proceeding, the technician wants to make sure the business can legally modify and redistribute the software under its license terms. Which license should the technician verify is attached to the software?
- A
GNU General Public License (GPL)
- B
End User License Agreement (EULA) that prohibits redistribution
- C
Commercial per-device proprietary license
- D
Trialware license limited to evaluation use
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
This question tests the ability to apply open-source licensing knowledge in a workplace scenario, which aligns with A+ Core 2 expectations around software licensing and proper use of applications. When an organization wants to modify and redistribute software, the technician must confirm that the license explicitly permits those actions. The GNU GPL is one of the most recognized open-source licenses and allows modification and redistribution, provided the organization follows the license conditions, such as preserving license notices and making source code available when required. By contrast, proprietary EULAs, per-device commercial licenses, and trialware licenses generally restrict modification and redistribution. Best practice is to review the exact license text included with the software or on the project's official site before deployment. Reference points include the Free Software Foundation's GPL terms and the Open Source Initiative's descriptions of approved open-source licenses.
- A. Correct.
Correct. The GNU General Public License (GPL) is a well-known open-source license that permits users to run, study, modify, and redistribute the software, including modified versions, as long as they comply with the license terms. In a real deployment scenario, this is the key license type to verify when a company wants to customize software and share the modified version with others. A common GPL requirement is that source code for redistributed modified versions must also be made available under the same license terms.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. A standard EULA that prohibits redistribution would directly conflict with the company's plan to share the modified installer with another organization. Someone might choose this option because many business applications are distributed under EULAs, but those agreements typically restrict copying, modification, and redistribution rather than allowing open-source collaboration.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. A commercial per-device proprietary license usually allows installation on a defined number of devices but does not normally grant rights to modify the software or redistribute customized versions. This is a plausible distractor because the company is deploying software to multiple endpoints, but the scenario specifically focuses on modification and redistribution rights, which proprietary licenses generally do not provide.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Trialware is intended for temporary evaluation and commonly restricts production use, long-term deployment, modification, and redistribution. A technician unfamiliar with licensing differences might think 'free to download' means it can be shared or customized, but trialware does not provide the open-source rights described in the scenario.