Licensing question

Ben Tilly btilly at gmail.com
Thu Nov 10 03:58:09 UTC 2005


On 11/9/05, jack fredricks <jzfredricks at gmail.com> wrote:
> thanks all, mind if i ask another question/s?
>
> is this scenario accurate?
>
> 1) I develop "Code A" (under LGPL)
> 2) Company X downloads my "Code A", edits it, then releases "Code B"
> (under LGPL)
> 3) I download their "Code B", edit it or merge it etc with "Code A",
> then releases "Code C" (under LGPL)
> 4) "Code C" is still LGPL'd, so repeat this til you're bored
>
> This seems perfect to me for my current needs. I can get help from
> others, and I can help others, yet still retain control over SOME of
> my code.
>
This is certainly the most likely scenario.  The less likely option is
that Company X chooses to release under the GPL instead of the LGPL. 
In that case you might not want to copy their changes back.

Before committing to the LGPL, you should read it carefully and see
whether you are happy with what it requires you to do.  The main ones
are that you must allow people to modify your work, you must permit
reverse engineering, and you must maintain source code availability
for the LGPLed parts of your application.

Cheers,
Ben



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