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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: Elliotte Harold <elharo AT metalab.unc.edu>
  • To: John Cowan <jcowan AT reutershealth.com>, xom-interest <xom-interest AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Re: [XOM-interest] LGPL vs. GPL with library exception
  • Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2005 07:21:34 -0500

John Cowan wrote:

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.


Hmm. Possible. The clause is "In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License."

I guess it comes down to whether bundling in a JAR archive is "mere aggregation or not." Arguably it is. Arguably it isn't. I read "on a volume of a storage or distribution medium" as meaning that just because you put two libraries together on the same CD, one is not infected with the other. Could a jar file be considered a distribution medium? Maybe. If it is, though, then the real unit becomes the class, and the only way the infection spreads is by copying and pasting code from a L/GPL class into another.

Anyway, I fired off a message to the FSF licensing folks asking for their opinion.

--
Elliotte Rusty Harold elharo AT metalab.unc.edu
XML in a Nutshell 3rd Edition Just Published!
http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/xian3/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596007647/cafeaulaitA/ref=nosim




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