[fpc-devel] LGPL vs BSD

Graeme Geldenhuys graemeg.lists at gmail.com
Fri Aug 4 10:04:51 CEST 2006


Thanks to everybody for the quick replies.

The point below relates to a library created in each license.

So to recap LGPL:
* The LGPL allows you to create a library, which you can use in a
commercial app or a free app.
* If you statically link to that library (compile in into your
executable), the whole application source must be available on
request, even commercial apps.  (this will be a major issue for me!)
* Any changes made to the library must be available on request.

To recap BSD:
* You can use the library in commercial and free apps.
* You can link statically or dynamically to the library without
releasing your commercial code.
* You do not need to release any code changes made to the library.


Regarding the credits to authors.  Wasn't there a change in the BSD
license (revision 2 or something) where giving credit is not required
anymore. Example you can create a commercial app (Mac OS 10 comes to
mind) and don't need to mention any credits in you app.

Regards,
  Graeme.


On 8/4/06, Jonas Maebe <jonas.maebe at elis.ugent.be> wrote:
>
> On 4 aug 2006, at 08:55, Graeme Geldenhuys wrote:
>
> > What is the major differences between the BSD and LGPL?
>
> The main difference is that if you ship an application linked with an
> LGPL'd library,
>
> a) you must provide the sources of this library if the end user asks
> for them
> b) the end user must be able to relink with other version of the
> library (as far as API compatibility allows, of course, you're not
> required to keep your program compatible with all versions of that
> library out there now and in the future). This means that you have to
> either provide the source of your program, link dynamically to the
> library (most common case), or in case of static linking make all
> compiled object files of your application available.
>
> Jonas

-- 
There's no place like 127.0.0.1



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