LGPL Section 5 & 6

Somik Raha somik at yahoo.com
Fri May 24 12:53:47 UTC 2002


Hello,
    I have a query regarding the LGPL  ( I hope I am posting in the =
appropriate forum ).=20
    Section 5 mentions that if the object code of the software includes =
object code of the LGPL library, then it is bound under Section 6, "As =
an exception to the Sections above, you may also combine or link a "work =
that uses the Library" with the Library to produce a work containing =
portions of the Library, and distribute that work under terms of your =
choice, provided that the terms permit modification of the work for the =
customer's own use and reverse engineering for debugging such =
modifications."

    This seems to place restrictions on the distribution mechanism of =
commercial products which only "use" an open source LGPL library. As I =
understand - it can only be distributed if the binary code is kept =
seperately, and the software links to it at run time. Is this =
intepretation correct ?

    If yes, then I was looking for other licenses which safeguard open =
source code and yet give the necessary flexibility to commercial =
entities when it comes to "using" libraries. Apache and BSD licenses =
seemed to be have no safeguards but a lot of flexibility.
   =20
    I would appreciate any advice in this regard.
    Thank you very much in advance.

Regards,
Somik

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