[libvirt] Using dlls for Windows provided in http://libvirt.org/sources/win32_experimental/Libvirt-0.8.7-2.exe

[Daniel P. Berrange]

On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 05:30:45PM +0100, Schnizer, Monika wrote:
> Dear Daniel,
> 
> 	thank you very much for your quick answer.
> 
> Yes, I have read LGPL in detail.
> And to be honest, I have doubts that we can proceed in the way proposed.
> Some discussions cannot simply done with legal, as all LGPL does have
> aspects that are more technical. So in fact technical and legal
> knowledge do have to be combined.
> 
> So let me outline, why I do have doubts that we can proceed in this way:
> a) If we use that installation executable, we need to have exactly those sources,
>    including the scripts that create the executable.

Yes, that is correct.

> b) As soon as we take only parts of the complete work, e.g. take
>    only some libraries out of it, then under strict interpretation
>    of the LGPL, we would create a work based on the orginal work.
>    The original work in this case being the installation executable,
>    all ist binaries and sources.
> c) Having a work based on the original code the LGPL is very strict:
>    We could only distribute it separately from our other SW, in order
>    to avoid a strong copy-left-effect.
> 
> The question now is:
> 	do we interprete LGPL too strict?

I think you are about right.

> I suppose that the following approach is conform to LGPL:
> Method 2:
> a) we download sources for libvirt.
> b) we compile themselves in our Windows environment
> c) we then distribute the binaries with our application.
> Of course we do the following:
> 	we tell that we use libvirt
> 	provide the license
> 	provide copy right information
> 	tell the customer that he has the right to receive sources (for three years after last distribution)
> 	and/or provide sources together with binary.

This is the approach pretty much all Linux distributions
follow, because by building everything from source yourself,
you can ensure that you are in possession of all the pieces
used to create the binaries & thus be able to distribute
them for license compliance. If in doubt, I'd go for this
approach of building everything from scratch.

Daniel
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