LGPL derivatives

LGPL derivatives

Posted Jan 20, 2006 20:01 UTC (Fri) by spitzak (subscriber, #4593)
In reply to: GPLv3: a first look by bjlucier
Parent article: GPLv3: a first look

We also applied something like this to fltk (http://www.fltk.org/COPYING.php). Even in C++, supplying object files that can be relinked with the library is enormously hard to do and probably completely useless to anybody who wants to modify the library. It would be far easier for the user to tell the original author "can you please put this useful patch for fltk into the version you are using and send me a new compilation of the program". Also some claim that this requires dynamic linking, which would completley kill the main advantage of fltk, which is that programs using it don't have to be "installed" and the executable "just works".

In our version we tried to make it clear that modifying the fltk code itself and using that in your program requires you to give out the source code for your modifications.

As I have seen this done dozens of times, now including the Lisp and OCaml versions, I would really like to see a single *official* LGPL3 which rewrites or removes these "must supply linkable object code" restrictions. It is obvious that huge numbers of library implementors want to modify the library like this, and without an official version it is leading to huge numbers of slightly different, and possibly incompatable, licenses.

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