Hi Rob, thanks for jumping in the discussion, all points of view are welcomed.
I'll answer you inline. On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 10:27 AM, Rob Vesse <[email protected]> wrote: > Note that Apache projects are allowed to rely on LGPL libraries provided > they are optional dependencies > > http://www.apache.org/legal/resolved.html#optional > > So if most users won't want/need RDF/HT (which I strongly suspect is the > case) then it would be perfectly fine to have the RDF/HT parser module > rely on the Java HDT library provided that Marmotta users have to manually > opt-in to enabling RDF/HT support and it isn't included by default > That could be right if we would want to use such dependency. But knowing the licensing issue, the goal of MARMOTTA-593 was always "the mplementation of RDF HDT from scratch". Therefore what Junyue was asking about "inspiring" himself with that code we are in a completely different scenario. So, in that context, we are actually out of the clauses that LGPL provides for the usage as library, and we directly jump in the GPL clauses as derived work. And that's the IP issue here now. Btw the "don't look at it" argument has always seemed dumb to me since > when you get down to it there are only so many ways to do things > particularly when you are implementing a formal specification like this. > This is especially true in the case of binary formats where the low level > code is always going to boil down to something along the lines of "try to > read next N bytes, interpret those bytes appropriately" so the only real > differences will be in the higher level APIs you wrap over it > Could sound dumb, but legally it's the only safe way. However I would suggest posting a thread on legal-discuss@ to get > clarification for people better versed in the legal issues involved > I think that's the best idea. I'd prefer the mentor of the project (Peter) takes care about dealing with this issue. But if he is busy and can't do it, I'll ask tomorrow. Cheers, -- Sergio Fernández Partner Technology Manager Redlink GmbH m: +43 6602747925 e: [email protected] w: http://redlink.co
