On 2020-06-02 11:15, Andrew Robinson wrote: > I see only one download for IUP, not many. The GPL license appears to say that > ALL code linked with GPL source (that would mean all the GPL static > libraries), must also be disclosed under a GPL license. By providing GPL > static libraries in a single IUP package instead of having the users download > it separately (which is what "split" would actually mean), it seems to me that > it might a violation of the GPL license. > > > But I'm not a lawyer or the author of GPL, so maybe someone else can tell us > if this is legit? Maybe someone like Richard Stallman, which Google lists as > the author of GPL? > [...]
G'day, Basically your take on GPL is correct -- if you statically link to a GPL-ed library, then your code must be GPLed also. This stance was simply too restrictive for many people (e.g. the C library providing resources for GCC-compiled programs at runtime), so a "Lesser" LGPL licence was created. Some libraries are dual-licensed,: Either GPL, or perhaps LGPL, or perhaps Apache, or perhaps MIT (Lua ecosystem default), or perhaps Creative Commons (or perhaps... etc.). Dynamic linking is very valuable here -- you can have a non-GPL binary, and "require" a library at runtime, where the library code has stronger constraints on it. For example, some drivers in the GNU/Linux kernel cause the Kernel's "GPLv2" licence to be "tainted" if they are loaded by the kernel's module system. There is a non-trivial gap between LGPL and the traditional "MIT" licence that is pervasive in the Lua/LuaRocks ecosystem, so people should tread carefully here. As I said previously, the "EXCLUDE_TARGETS" facility of IUP could be implemented for IM and CD, and, once libraries are arranged to be top-level targets, precisely what is statically linked (and therefore a licence that the author permits to be attached must be used), or you try to defer code integration for problematically-licensed-libraries to strictly dynamic linking only. However, I'm not a lawyer, so getting expert advice is strongly advisable. Various Open Source (ugh!) entities, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), may be able to help and/or provide pointers to agencies that know the area well. cheers, s-b etc etc _______________________________________________ Iup-users mailing list Iup-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/iup-users
