Messages in this thread | | | From | "Khimenko Victor" <> | Date | Wed, 8 Mar 2000 20:56:00 +0300 (MSK) | Subject | Re: BSD Licensed files in Linux kernel. |
| |
In <20000308173518.A2156@storm.local> Andreas Bombe (andreas.bombe@munich.netsurf.de) wrote: AB> On Wed, Mar 08, 2000 at 12:01:28PM +0300, Khimenko Victor wrote: >> In <383326804.952471407031.JavaMail.root@web34.pub01> Lee Chin (leechin@mail.com) wrote: >> >> khim != lawyer >> >> > Does this mean to say that If I link my application with glibc, I have to >> > gove away my code under either GPL or a more liberal licence? >> >> Yes, if you link it STATICALLY. If you link dinamically LGPL (but NOT "plain" >> GPL!) has special exception clause and thus in such case you can use any >> license you wish...
AB> Linking is linking.
Hmm. It does (as you yourself said below).
AB> Statically or dynamically makes no difference legally, it's only a AB> technical issue.
It does. When you link statically you are creating "binary blob" out of library and program and you can not replace library with other version later. With dynamic linking you are creating just references to library in your programs and components are still chnageable afterwards (you can replace glibc 2.1 instead of glibc 2.0 or you can replace program binary without replacing library). So static linking and dynamic linking are two VERY different acts legally: statically linked library is part of you product, dynamically linked library is merely requirement. That's why StarOffice consist basically of one (ONE!) huge binary and separately distributed glibc's binary AFAIK (is there any other reason?).
AB> It is however required that it is possible to link the binary to a AB> locally modified version of the used library. With shared libraries AB> this is relatively simple, with static linking the binary distribution AB> has to contain separate object files for the library and the AB> application (additionally to the linked executable) so that it can be AB> relinked to a different library version.
Effectively this means what I've said: you can link dynamically but not statically :-) If you REALLY need static link then yes, you can provide all object files. For any free software (not only GPL'ed one) this mean that static linking with LGPL'ed library is legal though so I painted picture with little too wide brush initially :-/
AB> IANAL, but you can look it up in section 6 of the LGPL for yourself.
Exactly.
- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
| |