On Sat, 26 Aug 2006 21:19:18 +0300 Markus Laire wrote: [...] > So LGPLed tntdb would be *distributable* by others. > But would it be *usable* by others in his/her own program under the > LGPL license? Only as long as it does not link against GPLed library. Otherwise, you have to consider it as if it were GPLed itself. Again, this holds if we trust the FSF's legal theory of linking. Since this theory has not yet been tested in court, AFAIK, we do not really know whether it's valid. But, to be on the safe side, we have to assume it's valid. > > If yes, then he/she would effectively also be using mysql under the > LGPL license, which IMHO is not possible. The GPL was specifically design to prevent such a possibility. Again, we do not know whether it achieves its goal, but we have to assume it does, in order to be conservative. > > If no, then why would the author want to use LGPL if nobody can use > the tntdb under that license? So that a modified tntdb that links against other libraries (under non-copyleft licenses such as BSD or MIT, or under the LGPL, or under proprietary terms) can be linked with any program, with very few restrictions. I don't if this is the actual goal of tntdb author, though. Ah, the usual disclaimers: IANAL, IANADD. -- But it is also tradition that times *must* and always do change, my friend. -- from _Coming to America_ ..................................................... Francesco Poli . GnuPG key fpr == C979 F34B 27CE 5CD8 DC12 31B5 78F4 279B DD6D FCF4
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