'GPL encumbrance problems' (jdow)

[jdow]

From: "Erwin Rol" <mailinglists at erwinrol.com>

> On Tue, 2006-01-17 at 20:57 -0700, David G. Miller (aka DaveAtFraud)
> wrote:
>> jdow at earthlink.net wrote:
>> 
>> > From: "Jeff Vian" <jvian10 at charter.net>
>> >
>> >> On Tue, 2006-01-17 at 21:40 +0000, Andy Green wrote:
>> >>
> 
>> Up until recently I worked for a company that developed and marketed a 
>> closed source, Linux based, network monitoring product 
>> (http://www.vericept.com).  The company lawyers saw no problem with us 
>> building and selling a closed source product that included calls to a 
>> variety of GPLed and LGPLed libraries.  As has been extensively 
>> discussed over at Groklaw (http://www.groklaw.net) and elsewhere on the 
>> 'net, headers and interfaces are *not* protectable elements under 
>> copyright law.  The only way the GPL kicks (via copyright law) in is if 
>> you actually modify executable GPLed code for your product.  At worst, 
>> you would then need to make only these changes to the GPLed code 
>> available as source (there's also nothing that says the maintainer has 
>> to accept your changes; just publishing them is sufficient).
> 
> The GPL kicks in if you distribute your product. If your program needs a
> GPL library the program is a derived work from that library and so if
> you distribute that program you have to distribute it in a GPL
> compatible way (for example by putting the program under the GPL).
> 
> If you have a LGPL library the use of that library is not seen as a
> derived work and hence you are free to choose the license for your
> program. 

What happens if I discover, after months of development, that some
LGPLed library I used actually itself uses a GPLed library and was
mis-licensed? I'm toast. This seems to me to be too big a risk for
me to spend much of any time trying to make a living off GPL tainted
software. I might try to make a reputation with it. But I'd not expect
it to be the sole source of money to keep my computers powered let
alone keep me powered.

{^_^}