Re: AppFramework licensing discussion

From: Andrus Adamchik (andru..bjectstyle.org)
Date: Tue Oct 30 2007 - 13:45:00 EDT

  • Next message: Mike Kienenberger: "Re: AppFramework licensing discussion"

    > That being said, I don't know the official Apache stance on the matter
    > at the moment.

    What actually matters to us is this:

        http://apache.org/legal/3party.html

    We can't distribute LGPL'd dependencies with Apache Cayenne.

    Andrus

    On Oct 30, 2007, at 7:37 PM, Michael Gentry wrote:

    > OK, I'm not a lawyer, but ... :-)
    >
    > LGPL (but not GPL) code can be included (or linked at compile time) in
    > commercial code and it doesn't open-source the commercial code. To
    > quote from the GNU itself:
    >
    > http://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-not-lgpl.html
    >
    > "The GNU Project has two principal licenses to use for libraries. One
    > is the GNU Lesser GPL; the other is the ordinary GNU GPL. The choice
    > of license makes a big difference: using the Lesser GPL permits use of
    > the library in proprietary programs; using the ordinary GPL for a
    > library makes it available only for free programs."
    >
    > This is why the GNU C library is LGPL:
    >
    > "This is why we used the Lesser GPL for the GNU C library. After all,
    > there are plenty of other C libraries; using the GPL for ours would
    > have driven proprietary software developers to use another—no problem
    > for them, only for us."
    >
    > A commercial/proprietary application can be compiled with GCC and
    > linked with the GNU C library and still be proprietary.
    >
    > That being said, I don't know the official Apache stance on the matter
    > at the moment. However, even if Cayenne Modeler were proprietary and
    > used LGPL code, that would not change the proprietary nature of the
    > application. Of course, CM is not proprietary and I can't imagine how
    > utilizing a library or another tool that is LPGL would change the ASF
    > licensing of CM since LPGL doesn't change the licensing of proprietary
    > software. I do believe the LPGL wants it to be known that the
    > application (CM in this case) utilizes LPGL software and maybe that is
    > the issue ASF would have? Perhaps I'm missing something, though.
    >
    > From the GPL FAQ:
    >
    > If a library is released under the GPL (not the LGPL), does that mean
    > that any program which uses it has to be under the GPL?
    > Yes, because the program as it is actually run includes the
    > library.
    >
    > (note that it is mentioning GPL vs LGPL there)
    >
    > and:
    >
    > How does the LGPL work with Java?
    > See http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/lgpl-java.html for
    > details. It works as designed, intended, and expected.
    >
    >
    >
    > /dev/mrg
    >
    >
    > On 10/29/07, Andrus Adamchik <andru..bjectstyle.org> wrote:
    >> Tom started an ASF vs. LGPL discussion with the AppFramework project
    >> (that is mainly being developed by sun). If anybody thinks that
    >> AppFramework is a technology important enough for the Modeler and is
    >> willing to argue why an ASF/BSD/MIT license is a good thing for them,
    >> here is a link:
    >>
    >> https://appframework.dev.java.net/servlets/ReadMsg?
    >> list=users&msgNo=1210
    >>
    >> While the framework looks nice, I haven't evaluated it for real yet,
    >> besides that'll likely start a flame war, so I am staying away from
    >> it myself :-)
    >>
    >> Andrus
    >>
    >



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