GPL licenses in companies with proprietary developments

Question

Licenses for software and other works

Let the company "N Inc." develops software for operating systems based on the Linux kernel. One part of the implementation is writing a kernel module. Accordingly, the code written in the module is distributed under the GPL license.

After some time, the project manager comes to the conclusion that some of the code from this module needs to be moved to User Space in order not to distribute it under a free license.

Question: Does the developer have the right, and if so, since when, to freely distribute both versions of the module, because. are they both written under the GPL? By time, I mean, for example, building the first release version that has this module, or releasing a software product to the market, or something else.

Answer 1

If the software has already entered the market, then you need to lay out the code (under the GPL), and anyone can distribute it.
But if a fork to a closed license occurred within the company and the product “did not see the light of day”, then there is simply no one to provide the code to, the company, as the author, can change the licensing as it pleases (if it fits into the distribution method). And a separate distribution of old code under the GPL by one of the developers may be a violation of the contract with the company.

Answer 2

No, the GPL even forbids linking free and non-free code, so that part of the module code cannot be distributed under a non-free license, but this does not prevent you from writing a functionally similar analogue yourself.

Answer 3

You can, nVidia does something like that. The code under the GPL is opened after the product has gone outside the company.