[License-discuss] License which requires watermarking? (Attribution Provision)

[Lawrence Rosen]

Larry Rosen asked:
> How would the choice of license affect the *legal* determination of 
> whether the resulting work is or is not a derivative work for which 
> source code must be disclosed?

Ken Arromdee responded:
> The choice of license affects whether source code must be disclosed at
all.
> If the library was under the LGPL, the competitor would not have to
provide source.

That is precisely why this topic is appropriate for this list. Ken's
statement reflects a common misunderstanding of the GPL and LGPL. I'd like
to correct it.

Regardless of whether a library is licensed under the GPL or the LGPL, a
licensee will have to disclose *source code* of the library and *source
code* of derivative works of the library. 

This is also true if the work is NOT a library.  The test is merely whether
the resulting work is a *copy* or a *derivative work*.  Calling it a library
makes no difference whatsoever.

/Larry

Lawrence Rosen
Rosenlaw & Einschlag, a technology law firm (www.rosenlaw.com)
3001 King Ranch Rd., Ukiah, CA 95482
Office: 707-485-1242


-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Arromdee [mailto:arromdee at rahul.net] 
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2013 10:55 AM
To: lrosen at rosenlaw.com; license-discuss at opensource.org
Subject: Re: [License-discuss] License which requires watermarking?
(Attribution Provision)

On Tue, 1 Jan 2013, Lawrence Rosen wrote:
>> Some people use ordinary GPL on libraries with the intent of 
>> crippling competing commercial reuse (since any competitors have to 
>> release their source and competitors wouldn't want to do that).
>
> Really? That's not wise.
>
> How would the choice of license affect the *legal* determination of 
> whether the resulting work is or is not a derivative work for which 
> source code must be disclosed?

The choice of license affects whether source code must be disclosed at all.
If the library was under the LGPL, the competitor would not have to provide
source.