Ian Hickson wrote: >>For example, consider the case when you take the source code for a >>GPLed application and the source code for an LGPLed library used by >>the application. You compile all the code, link it together (let's say >>statically for the sake of argument), and distribute the resulting >>work under GPL terms (as required by the GPL). Are you (or Hixie for >>that matter) claiming that the GPL (or LGPL) requires that in order to >>do this one must (not may, _must_) physically change all the LGPL >>license notices in the library source files to GPL license notices >>first? > > That's what I think it says.
Can you (or anyone else) cite any examples where people have actually done this in practice? For the record, I don't believe that this is the case. I think that this case is covered under Section 6 of the LGPL: "... you may also combine or link a 'work that uses the Library' with the Library to produce a work containing portions of the Library, and distribute that work under terms of your choice, provided that the terms permit modification of the work for the customer's own use and reverse engineering for debugging such modifications." As applied to the example I gave, the application (consisting solely of code with GPL license notices) is the "work that uses the Library", the library (consisting solely of code with LGPL license notices) is "the Library", and the combination of them is a "work containing portions of the Library". By section 6 of the LGPL this "work containing portions of the Library" may be distributed under GPL terms (as a special case of "terms of your choice"), since such terms certainly permit "modification of the work for the customer's own use and reverse engineering for debugging such modifications". And section 6 says nothing about having to physically replace the LGPL license notices with GPL license notices in order to use the Library under such terms. IMO Section 3 was intended for a specific case, a case explicitly addressed in Section 3: " This option [i.e., changing the license notices] is useful when you wish to copy part of the code of the Library into a program that is not a library." But IMO it's not a general requirement of the LGPL that this be done in all cases where works containing LGPLed code are distributed under GPL terms. Frank -- Frank Hecker [EMAIL PROTECTED]
