You can put proprietary clients on top of SAP-DB without the licence affecting them. If you modify SAP-DB itself, the GPL obliges you to make source code of the modified version available to anyone you distribute that version to; also, you cannot prevent them from redistributing that modified SAP-DB source code.
The interface libraries are licenced under the LGPL, which means that the terms of the GPL apply to the libraries only (i.e. if you modify the libraries you must make source for the modified libraries available to anyone you distribute the libraries to). The LGPL limits this to the libraries themselves, but not programs linked to them. The GPL would expand the scope of the licence to code linked to the library whereas the LGPL does not. Ergo, the GPL/LGPL licencing of SAP-DB does not restrict you from distributing proprietary client software that uses SAP-DB. Nigel. -----Original Message----- From: Brendish Justin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, 30 March 2003 5:40 a.m. To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: What is meant by "Distributable under the GPL/LGPL"? Hi, under which conditions can I use the SAP-DB in commercial products? Do I have to pay any licence fees? Given the fact that your product is avaible under the GPL, does this mean that my source code has to be open source as well? What is meant by "Distributable under the GPL/LGPL"? Regards Tom _______________________________________________ sapdb.general mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://listserv.sap.com/mailman/listinfo/sapdb.general _______________________________________________ sapdb.general mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://listserv.sap.com/mailman/listinfo/sapdb.general
