gnu-misc-discuss
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: license question with non-GPL library


From: Merijn de Weerd
Subject: Re: license question with non-GPL library
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 17:23:44 +0200
User-agent: slrn/0.9.8.1 (FreeBSD)

On 2006-08-16, Scott <scott@nospam.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Aug 2006 08:01:22 +0200, Merijn de Weerd
><merijn+nospam@realemail.net> wrote:
>>Distributors of GPL code are required to make available the full
>>source code of all modules, which would include the library. So
>>yes you should include the source code of the library with all
>>the other source.
>
> Thanks for the replies!
>
> How does this work practically, then?  Do I have to distribute the
> source code to every library I link to?  

Yes, in theory. Fortunately many libraries are LGPL and not GPL.
The LGPL does not have this requirement, so there is no need
to do anything special just because you juse libstdc++ or glibc.
But if you use, say, GNU readline, you need to include its source.

There is an exception for "anything that is normally distributed"
with the OS. This is (intentionally) vague. 

Also note that if you distribute a binary which includes a
compiled version of cairo or freetype, you need to include its
source even if these libraries qualified as system library.
The system library exception applies "unless that [library] itself
accompanies the executable."

Merijn

-- 
Remove +nospam to reply


reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]