Re: TortoiseSVN License

Stefan Küng wrote:
> On 11/16/05, Bill.Hughes@cgi-europe.com <Bill.Hughes@cgi-europe.com> wrote:
>
>
>>>I suggested the Mozilla public license or Sun's CDDL variant of it.
>>>Stefan felt those were 2 much legalese, and also too US-specific.
>>
>>And then I pop up (yet) again and wonder what is wrong with the LGPL - it
>>seems to cover what is required and may be ok with the TCVS developer.
>
>
> As far as I understood the TCSV developer, he wasn't ok with
> non-copyleft licenses.

LGPL is a copy-left license, but it is geared towards standalone
libraries such as Neon. You can compile and link the Neon library into a
commercial application, and only reveal the Neon source because Neon and
the app are separate entities.

If you apply LGPL to a complete application, then any change to that app
is a derivative which must also be covered by LGPL. What happens if you
take a module out of TSVN and build it into another app is undefined,
because again it does not have the logical separation of a library.

The terms of the GPL mean many companies will not allow their people to
get involved with TSVN. The legal position with LGPL in this use case is
not clear cut, so anyone playing safe (do lawyers ever do otherwise?)
will assume that it is effectively GPL. And even if it can be made
clearer, it is much easier for a company to say 'No' than to investigate
the legal issues. This may be misguided, but that's the way it is.

Simon

-- 
        ___
   oo  // \\      "De Chelonian Mobile"
  (_,\/ \_/ \     TortoiseSVN
    \ \_/_\_/>    The coolest Interface to (Sub)Version Control
    /_/   \_\     http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscribe@tortoisesvn.tigris.org
For additional commands, e-mail: dev-help@tortoisesvn.tigris.org