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Re: LGPL and GPL code together



On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 23:13:37 +0200 Achim Bohnet wrote:

> [cc'ed Percy Leonhardt <percy@eris23.de>, the knemo author]

Do we have to keep him Cc:ed?
Moreover, I didn't Cc:ed Achim, as he didn't ask it (but I'm not so sure
he's a debian-legal subscriber...).

> Hi,
> before searching for sponsor of knemo (ITP #259245,
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=259245
> I did another licence review and noticed that in the knemo
> source (licenced under LGPL) are two files licensed under the GPL.
> 
> The two GPL files signalplotter{.h,.cpp} are a copy from kdebase.
> ksysguard/gui/SensorDisplayLib/SignalPlotter.*.  License and copyright
> are _not_ changed so this is fine.
> 
> But I'm abit confused about the combination using/linking GPL in LGPL
> 
> I read that LGPL is compatible with GPL:

Yes, it is, because of an explicit conversion clause (see LGPLv2.1,
section 3).

[...]
> 'My' Problem:
> 
> From GPL 2b) I get the impression that either the two files need to
> be removed or all the other LGPL code relicensed to GPL.

AFAICS, explicit relicensing is not required.
All the other parts of the library are effectively under the GPL, as
long as they are distributed with the two GPL'd files.
The LGPL'd parts can still be pulled apart from those two GPL'd files
and distributed under the LGPL, though.

> But
> the 'compatible' from the 5) in dfsg-faq sound like the mixture is
> okay and everything can stay as it is.

It is my understanding that this is the case.

Note however that the library as a whole is effectively under the GPL,
as long as it includes at least one GPL'd part: consequently (assuming
that the FSF's interpretation can be trusted, but take into account that
it has not yet been tested in court...) the library, as it is now,
cannot be linked against GPL-incompatible works.

-- 
    :-(   This Universe is buggy! Where's the Creator's BTS?   ;-)
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  Francesco Poli                             GnuPG Key ID = DD6DFCF4
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