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Framework Licensing Questions


From: Tim
Subject: Framework Licensing Questions
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:34:04 -0700
User-agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15)

Hello,

I have a moderately complex licensing scenario that I was hoping
someone could help me navigate.  Here is what I *want* to do, though
it may not work:

A. Build a framework which is licensed under the LGPLv3

B. Write "wrapper" plugins for the framework which link various
   third-party libraries having multiple different open source
   licenses, including CPL, IBM Public, old BSD, and GPL v2/v3

C. Write proprietary, closed-source plugins for the framework which
   are sold to help support development of the framework


The most likely distribution model for each component, is that the
framework and wrapper plugins would be distributed by me in one
package; the third-party libraries would be distributed by Linux
distributions in a standard way; and the proprietary plugins would be
distributed in a separate package by me.  However, it may make sense
to distribute all components together as a VM or something similar to
make deployment easier.

My questions are:

1. Which of the above scenarios could cause licensing problems?
   1.A. Does the use of a GPLv2 or GPLv3 third-party library create a
        condition where the framework itself must be considered
        "GPLed" such that the proprietary modules or other third-party
        libraries are then incompatible?

   1.B. Does the method of distribution of each components make a
        difference?  If I strictly distribute each component
        separately (or rely on OS distributions to distribute the
        third-party libraries) does this help me avoid some issues?

2. The plugins I write for my framework would be adhering to a
   published API that is part of the framework.  Does this help me
   satisfy any System Library clauses or something similar to avoid
   license conflicts?

Any other issues I should consider?  I just want to make sure I
understand the implications of this approach and what restrictions I
might be under if I try to push this as an open source development
model.

Thank you,
tim



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