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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=726015118-09092001>Hi,</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=726015118-09092001>I would like to
release some software with </SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=726015118-09092001>dual licensing. I have heard of this being done with
GPL and a seperate commercial license; however, I need to allow the open source
code to link with non-free software - this seems to exclude
GPL.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=726015118-09092001></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=726015118-09092001>So, the next obvious
consideration seems to be a dual license using LGPL. That solves the above
problem, but does it introduce new problems?...</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=726015118-09092001></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=726015118-09092001>What about
contributions from 3rd parties - would they be discouraged from contributing
with the knowledge that their contributions could be exploited (exploitation
seems to be possible anyway with most non-GPL-based</SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=726015118-09092001> open source licenses
since they allow private forking).</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=726015118-09092001></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=726015118-09092001>Under a LGPL
dual-license, reasons to pay for the commercial license (rather than sticking
with the LGPL side) include not being forced to distribute the source code,
<SPAN class=726015118-09092001>the freedom to </SPAN>fork the code privately,
re-licensing permission, or some other 'special' privileges.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=726015118-09092001></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=726015118-09092001>Does this make
sense, or am I missing something? Is dual-licensing a dangerous game or is it a
good compromise, allowing both commercial exploitation for those that are
prepared to pay for it and free use of the software for those that don't
want to pay.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=726015118-09092001></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=726015118-09092001>Has anyone seen this
approach elsewhere?</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=726015118-09092001></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=726015118-09092001>Thanks for any new
perspectives/opinions that you can offer.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=726015118-09092001>Regards,
Rghoo.</SPAN></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>