[Fwd: RE: Open Source Licensing]

[Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller <uraeus linuxrising org>]

Hi,
After sending this to Bastien and Walters and now Iain I decided it was
of course of wider interest. Over the last 6 months we discussed the
implications for distributions to ship LGPL GStreamer with some
proprietary plugins and GPL applications. This example from Lawrence
Rosen shows how application developers can solve this by adding a
statement clarifying their reading of the GPL. 

So anyone who are writing GStreamer applications, and are using the GPL,
yet do not mind distributions shipping the combination I mentioned above
can look at this for a solution on how to solve it without relicensing.

Sincerely,
Christian

--- Begin Message ---

• From: "Lawrence Rosen" <lrosen rosenlaw com>
• To: "'Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller'" <uraeus gnome org>
• Subject: RE: Open Source Licensing
• Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2004 13:36:52 -0700

For another example of this, check out:
http://jboss.org/pdf/why_we_use_the_lgpl.pdf.

I hope this helps.

/Larry

Lawrence Rosen 
Rosenlaw & Einschlag, technology law offices (www.rosenlaw.com)
3001 King Ranch Road, Ukiah, CA 95482 
707-485-1242 * fax: 707-485-1243 
email: lrosen rosenlaw com 



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller [mailto:uraeus gnome org]
> Sent: Friday, October 01, 2004 11:29 AM
> To: lrosen rosenlaw com
> Subject: Open Source Licensing
> 
> Hi,
> I just read you book 'open source licensing'. Nice book although I had
> hoped for more practical advice. For instance I am working on the LGPL
> GStreamer multimedia framework. We now have a situation where we are
> uncertain about legalities of distribution due to having some
> proprietary plugins and some GPL applications. The applications authors
> are not to keen on relicensing for various reasons. But if I understand
> your book correctly we could remove all legal uncertainty just by having
> the GPL application authors add a statement that in their own reading of
> their own license (the GPL) they do not consider GStreamer or its
> plugins a derivative of their application? (In other words not a
> relicensing, but a declaration of intepretation)
> 
> (I am basing this on your statement that 'Under the law, only the common
> understanding of a licensor and his licensees matter.)
> 
> Sincerely,
> Christian

--- End Message ---