License Committee Report for July 2007

[Alexander Terekhov]

On 7/31/07, John Cowan <cowan at ccil.org> wrote:
> Wilson, Andrew scripsit:
>
> > Look specifically at the case of a GPLv2-only program
> > linking to an LGPLv3 library where the "system library" exception does
> > not apply.  GPLv2 says the entire Combined Work
> > falls under its copyleft.  This is trivially easy with an LGPLv2
> > library, since the library can be automatically relicensed as GPLv2.
>
> That's true, but that's not *why*.

Uhmm. Google search yields this:

http://www.linuxrising.org/files/licensingfaq.html

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Some common questions and answers in regards to licensing and patents

This FAQ is based on a a series of questions we asked the FSF in
regards to understanding how the GPL works and how patents affects the
GPL. These questions and answers are verified by the FSF lawyers,
which makes them the final interpretation on how the GPL and LGPL
interact with patents in our opinion. We paid the FSF to have them
provide us these answers. So these answers are verified correct by
people like FSF lawyer and law professor Eben Moglen.

Question: Can someone for example distribute

1. GStreamer, the LGPL library
2. Totem, a GPL playback application
3. The binary-only Sorenson decoder

together in one distribution/operating system ? If not, what needs to
be changed to make this possible ?

Answer: This would be a problem, because the GStreamer and Totem
licenses would forbid it. In order to link GStreamer to Totem, you
need to use section 3 of the LGPL to convert GStreamer to GPL. ...
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regards,
alexander.