[liblouis-liblouisxml] Re: License issue
- From: "John Gardner" <john.gardner@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <liblouis-liblouisxml@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 15 May 2014 06:43:34 -0700
Christian, you say you are not a lawyer, and that is unfortunately all that
needs to be said. The big corporate lawyers are terrified of LGPL3 just as
they were terrified of GPL. Which is why we switched from GPL to LGPL. It
does not matter one whit that you or I think LGPL3 is okay. If the big
corporations will not use liblouis even though some of us think it is okay with
LGPL3, we are making life difficult for blind people who use their software.
John G
-----Original Message-----
From: liblouis-liblouisxml-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:liblouis-liblouisxml-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Christian Egli
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2014 2:35 AM
To: John Gardner
Cc: liblouis-liblouisxml@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [liblouis-liblouisxml] Re: License issue
Hi John
"John Gardner" <john.gardner@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> In any case, I have been advised by people who keep better track of
> license terms than I that LGPL#3 is completely unacceptable to
> companies and agencies who need to use liblouis with anything that is
> not open source. They tell me that LGPL#3, as opposed to LGPL#2 and
> 2.1, no longer permits an LGPL-licensed library to be used with
> software that is not open.
I'm not a laywer but I do not think that this is true. The LGPL3 just like the
LGPL2 is a weak copyleft (according to gnu.org and wikipedia) which means that
anyone can "link to the library, and then be redistributed without the legal
requirement for the work to be distributed under the library's copyleft
license" (quoted from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft#Strong_and_weak_copyleft).
A benefit of weak copyleft for me is that the contributions that I make will
remain free and accessible to users while they can still be combined with
commercial software.
> There is absolutely nothing clear to me in LGPL#3. I have read over
> that license and frankly I do not understand one word. I encourage any
> of you to try and figure it out. Go to
> https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html
I read it and as I said I'm not a laywer. Presumably "You may convey a Combined
Work under terms of your choice that, taken together, effectively do not
restrict modification of the portions of the Library contained in the Combined
Work" (section 4 "Combined Works") means that if you provide the source of
liblouis you are free to combine it with any other work that is under a license
of your choice.
> Since the big company lawyers are concerned about #3 and not about #2,
> and since our purpose is to use LGPL for the following reason stated
> in the preamble to LGPL#2 “the Lesser license provides advantages in
> certain special circumstances. For example, on rare occasions, there
> may be a special need to encourage the widest possible use of a
> certain library, so that it becomes a de-facto standard. To achieve
> this, non-free programs must be allowed to use the library.”
I agree with that purpose but I think LGPL3 provides this just as well as
LGPL2.1.
> So LGPL#3 has now been hi-jacked away from that purpose of the LGPL#2,
> and we cannot use it.
Who says that "LGPL#3 has now been hi-jacked away from that purpose"? I don't
see this.
> I have been blissfully unaware, but I have been approached by a major
> company who wants to use liblouis but is unwilling if we are using
> LGPL#3.
I'd like to know more about this and would be happy to work with you to try to
resolve this.
Thanks
Christian
--
Christian Egli
Swiss Library for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Print Disabled Grubenstrasse
12, CH-8045 Zürich, Switzerland
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