On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 19:50:04 -0500, Eric Lambart <tclug at nomeaning.net> wrote: > I don't *believe* you have to supply any source code for BSD or LGPL. You do not have to provide source with products derived from BSD licensed code. However, there are actually two (or more) different "BSD" licenses. The older version had an advertising clause that is incompatible with the GPL: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/bsd.html LGPL and GPL are similar. If you modify a LGPL library, then you have to provide the source code upon request, just like with the GPL. The difference has to do with a program linking to a library. The FSF has this to say about linking: "When a program is linked with a library, whether statically or using a shared library, the combination of the two is legally speaking a combined work, a derivative of the original library." For static linking, they are correct, as the library code is combined with the program code into a single program binary. However, for dynamic linking, I believe they are wrong. Linking to a library does not cause any code from the library to be copied into the program binary. To my knowledge, nothing in copyright or the relevant case law says that referencing a copyrighted work causes the referencing work to become a derived work. Using is not deriving nor is it copying. Every program for Windows NT links to kernel32.dll. Does that mean that every program for Windows NT is a derivative of Windows NT? Of course not. Therefore, I don't see any practical difference between the GPL and LGPL. You can't statically link an LGPL library with a proprietary program and you can dynamically link a GPL library with a proprietary program. -- David Phillips <david at acz.org> http://david.acz.org/ _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list