I am programmer. Can I use GPL-code in my software product?

Yes. You can create software and set it under GPL. Whoever uses or changes your software has to license the resulting software under GPL again.

If someone uses your code but releases the new software as closed source, you as the author of the original software, have the right to force the infringing party to make their changes available under the GPL.

You can see the problem for the author: How can one know that somebody has used your code, if it closed source? There are people who are specialized in helping in these cases, see for example here.

See  more details on this topic in Block4-Open Source Licences.pdf (276Ko) and  Block5-FLOSS Licences Details.pdf (294Ko).

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