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On 12-Jan-98 The Hermit Hacker wrote:
> Does anyone here *understand* the LGPL? If we put the ODBC
>drivers *under* src/interfaces, does that risk contaminating the rest of
>the code *in any way*? Anyone here done a reasonably thorough study of
>the LGPL and can comment on it?
My understanding from Stallman's statements on the matter are: Distribution of
GPL'd source with non-GPL'd source is fine, as long as it is simple to figure
out which is which. By definition, GPL'd sources can be distributed freely.
For binaries which fall under the GPL, again, mixing them with other stuff is
OK, as long as GPL'd stuff is identified as such. Sources must be available,
of course.
LGPL is completely different. LGPL is what you use when you link your
non-GPL'd sources against a library built with GPL'd sources. In that case,
you are legal IFF you stuff can be re-linked against a different, non-GPL'd
library without recompilation. Actually, there's a bit of confusion on my
part about how much recompilation is permitted.
Companies like DG/Sequent/Sun/etc wouldn't be able to include FSF software on
the distributions if the above were not the case.
ObCaveat: I'm not a lawyer. I don't look like a lawyer, I don't smell like a
lawyer, and I don't lie like a lawyer.
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