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xom-interest - Re: [XOM-interest] LGPL vs. GPL with library exception

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Subject: XOM API for Processing XML with Java

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  • From: John Cowan <jcowan AT reutershealth.com>
  • To: Elliotte Harold <elharo AT metalab.unc.edu>
  • Cc: xom-interest <xom-interest AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [XOM-interest] LGPL vs. GPL with library exception
  • Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 18:30:56 -0500

Elliotte Harold scripsit:

> Multiple people have requested that I release XOM under the GPL with
> library exception instead of the LGPL.
>
> One thing I have recently noticed is that this would seem to prohibit
> one important distribution technique. I do not think GPL with library
> exception allows XOM to be bundled with non-GPL libraries in a single
> JAR file. I think the LGPL does in fact allow this under section 7. GPL
> with library exception does not have an equivalent section 7. I'm not
> 100% sure of that, but I've read through the license a few times
> thinking about this, and each time I've come to the same conclusion.

IMO this is "mere aggregation" as defined in the last paragraph of section
2 of the GPL or LGPL. After all, if they were side-by-side on the disk,
it would certainly be "mere aggregation". A JAR file is just a partly
compressed snapshot of a part of the disk, and is basically nothing but
a copy of it in copyright terms.

The main difference between the LGPL and GPL+exception ("the license
of Guile") is that an LGPL library used in an application must be
plug-replaceable by the end user, whereas a GPL+exception library
need not be. In the Java environment, that's a distinction without
a difference. So I'd go to the GPL+exception, just because it's easier
to mentally model than the LGPL.

--
Her he asked if O'Hare Doctor tidings sent from far John Cowan
coast and she with grameful sigh him answered that www.ccil.org/~cowan
O'Hare Doctor in heaven was. Sad was the man that word www.reutershealth.com
to hear that him so heavied in bowels ruthful. All
jcowan AT reutershealth.com
she there told him, ruing death for friend so young,
algate sore unwilling God's rightwiseness to withsay. Ulysses, "Oxen"




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