On Monday 05 February 2007, Ravi Mathur wrote:
> Hmmm from what I understand, wxWindows basically says that I do NOT  
> have to distribute the source of OSG & Producer with my dynamically  
> linked app.  But since OpenThreads uses just LGPL, I do have to  
> distribute its source.  Is it sufficient to include a README notice  
> that directs the user to the OpenThreads website?

AFAIK, no. Unfortunately, if you are distributing something (L)GPL licensesd 
(i.e. the OpenThreads DLLs) you must make the source available. Pointing the 
user to the upstream vendor is *not enough*. Some Debian-derived Linux distro 
vendors learned this the hard way recently.

> Also, I noticed that some OSG-based software doesn't include the  
> source or any type of license info for OSG/Producer/OpenThreads.  Is  
> this allowed?  Specifically, I'm looking at the download of Remo3D  
> which doesn't have the OpenThreads source in it.

If they are not distributing the binaries then they are fine. E.g. on Linux it 
is plausible that the system comes with the libs and you do not have to 
distribute them. Then you do not need to provide the source. The same holds 
if you tell the users to go get the libraries themselves from somewhere. 

However, if you are *bundling* the DLLs with your project, you are 
distributing them and you must make the source available. 

I do not know the case of Remo3D, perhaps it could be worthy to point this out 
to them.

The simple rule of thumb for (L)GPL licenses is that the source distribution 
requirement triggers if and only if you are distributing the derived work. If 
you are not - e.g. because it is dynamically linked and you rely on the user 
having/providing his own lib or you are doing something only for your own 
consumption (Google comes to mind), then you do not need to make the source 
available. However, keep in mind that I am not a lawyer :)

Regards,

Jan


-- 

Jan Ciger
GPG public key: http://www.keyserver.net/

Attachment: pgpaChHzlaH9i.pgp
Description: PGP signature

_______________________________________________
osg-users mailing list
[email protected]
http://openscenegraph.net/mailman/listinfo/osg-users
http://www.openscenegraph.org/

Reply via email to