On Tue, Jun 11, 2002 at 11:34:14PM +0200, Patrik Stridvall wrote: > > On Tue, Jun 11, 2002 at 11:23:06PM +0300, Hetz Ben Hamo wrote:
> > > I'm not an expert on licensing, and I thought to ask this > > question here - I'm > > > not trying to make any emails flame war - just need a > > simple answer... > > > A friend of mine is toying with an idea to write a frame > > buffer driver instead > > > of the x11drv on wine, but he doesn't think his boss will > > allow to release > > > the code.. > > > Can he (legally) write the driver, bundle it with the > > lgpl'd wine and sell > > > it? or is this illegal? > > If the driver interfaces with the rest of Wine through a > > clearly defined > > library API, and his proprietary code is distributed as > > separate object > > code that can be relinked with Wine at runtime or at build time (i.e., > > made available as either .o files or as a .so shared lib), > > then this is > > unquestionably permitted by the LGPL. > True in general but unfortunately the Wine display driver API > wouldn't IMHO be classified as a clearly defined API... > So whether this is allowed is a little unclear to say the least. Perhaps I've relayed it in an unclear manner, but that's my failing, not the LGPL's. When I say it must interface with the rest of Wine through a clearly defined API, I mean that any changes you make to existing Wine APIs in order to interface to this new driver must be released under the LGPL: you can only keep those parts of your code closed which do not include portions of someone else's LGPLed code. Steve Langasek postmodern programmer
