On 2002.02.09 15:55 Brett Glass wrote:
At 08:11 AM 2/9/2002, J.Brown (Ender/Amigo) wrote:
John Carmack made an intresting point, he releases ID softwares older releases under the GPL. Why? Because after originally releasing an
engine
after a BSD-esque license, a project done some very major work to the engine... and then lost it in a harddrive crash. So his -main- reason
for
using the GPL is to prevent work done in the community from being lost.
He really should take the time to back up his drives. ;-) But, assuming that he wishes to use this rather unusual backup mechanism, why would the
GPL be any better at this than a BSD-style license?
Yeah, i didn't quite get that argument either.
There are of course other points. The LGPL is the GPL without the restrictions which prevent useful commercial use.
Alas, this is not true. The latest version of the LGPL -- which RMS dubs the "Lesser GPL" -- imposes many restrictions which make commercial use difficult if not impossible. For example, it requires that software including the library be provided not just as a finished product but as a series of object files which can be lined with a newer version of the library. Not only is this a maintenance and logistics nightmare; because it exposes the symbol tables, it makes reverse engineering of the code trivial. This is by design.
Yes, the purpose of LGPL is to force proprietary components to be in seperate relinkable object files. Again, this is not new information-- just like saying the FSF is trying to keep people out of the proprietary software business is not new information.
The only symbols you'll have to export from these proprietary objects will be the exports, I'm sure you could come up with a way to make sure the internal symbols don't get shown to the world since you are such a great proprietary software developer.
And don't be concerned about looking at LGPL code either. I too develop proprietary software and I develop some of that software using free (LGPL) libraries. There is nothing preventing me from looking at the source to these libraries I am using. I am not infected with the (L)GPL and thus unable to write proprietary software.
So far in every case (well, actually settlement) involving the GPL it has been a very clear violation of somebody linking their software with GPL software, or knowingly incorporating GPLed code into a product. That is clearly not allowed by the GPL. However linking LGPL components with proprietary components /is/ allowed so long as you provide a way to continue to modify the LGPL components and relink them with the proprietary components. This is, in effect, the stated purpose of the LGPL. Why is this so hard for you to understand?
-Dave