Unpublished GPL Software

[Rodger Etz-Brown]

Hi,

the following is based on a real case.

Company A has contracted company B to write a piece of software.
Company B manages to negotioate with company A that the software will be
put under the GPL. Because it is now GPL, company B has used the
software in other projects

The issue now is that neither company A nor B have published the software. But
there is interest from outside those companies to see and use the
software. And it seems the only way to get this is to ask an employee of
either company to get a copy of the software.

So what about an employee of company B, the company that wrote the S/W,
would publish it? Would he/she need to ask permission from any of the
companies? Is it legal to just take and publish any software that is
under the GPL, even the author(s) haven't published it before?

I'd be interested in general views and feelings about this and
information about the legal side of it.

Thanks in advance,
REB