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RE: Licensing question


I'm also wondering if the GPL and LGPL are being confused here. Isn't
one of the reasons of having the LGPL, the ability to link a GPL'ed
library/class library into a non-gpl'ed application without the final
result being GPL'ed?

As long as you meet the LGPL license (ie: making available the source to
the library, etc, etc), would you be ok?

Peter

-- 
Peter Mount
Enterprise Support
Maidstone Borough Council
Any views stated are my own, and not those of Maidstone Borough Council.



-----Original Message-----
From: Erik Hensema [mailto:erik.hensema@group2000.nl]
Sent: 21 October 1999 07:49
To: 'Jim.Fairchild@IndSys.ge.com'; cygwin@sourceware.cygnus.com
Subject: RE: Licensing question


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim.Fairchild@IndSys.ge.com [mailto:Jim.Fairchild@IndSys.ge.com]

> I have a question regarding the statement, "if you intend to 
> port a commercial
> (non-GPL'd) application using Cygwin, you will need the 
> commercial license to
> Cygwin that comes with the supported native Win32 GNUPro 
> product".  What
> licensing restrictions apply if you plan on using the Unix 
> utilities only, and
> will not be developing applications that use the cygwin?  The 
> Unix utilities
> would be used in a commercial application to enable the 
> customer to transition
> from a UNIX system to a Windows NT system.
> Thanks for your help.

Well, I don't think you need a commercial license. You don't link
anything
with GPL code. You don't modify any GPL code (and if you did, you could
still supply the source). Just like it's legal to sell Linux for big
bucks,
you can sell Cygwin at any cost you like. 
Generally, whats not allowed, is linking non-open-source code with GPL
code.
However, this isn't a matter of source code at all.

Now a commercial application using binaries compiled from GPL source:
that's
very common. Many, many softwarehouses develop using GCC and sell
closed-source software. Many commercial websites run Linux/Apache/MySQL.
Non
problem at all.

> 

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