XOM API for Processing XML with Java

[John Cowan <jcowan AT reutershealth.com>]

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.

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