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Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:43:08 +0200
From: Ceki Gulcu <ceki@qos.ch>
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To: legal-discuss@apache.org
Subject: Re: LGPL software behind an isolation layer
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Hi Niclas,

Thank you for your response.

Niclas Hedhman wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 4:35 AM, Ceki Gulcu<ceki@qos.ch> wrote:
> 
>> I was discussing this issue with a friend and he mentioned the case of
>> Apache APR.  What does APR do with the mother of all libraries, namely
>> libc, which is licensed under the LGPL? Looking at the source code of
>> APR, it seems to me that APR does link with glibc, or?

> 3 things;
> 
> 1. It is a System Requirement, just like Tomcat has Java as a System
> Requirement. Something that is not shipped with the product. Further,
> libc being a requirement doesn't mean that it has a dependency on
> LGPL. AFAIK, the BSD folks ship libc under a liberal license and APR
> can use those...

 From what I could gather, APR ships with configuration scripts
(licensed under GPL with an exception clause) that create build
scripts depending on the host system. If the host system is Linux,
than APR does link with glibc but probably the linking is done
dynamically.

Assuming the linking was static (that's a big if), then you can't just
sweep the question under the rug by saying that "it's a system
requirement". Glibc is a mandatory dependency on Linux and when APR is
built on that platform, it always links with it.

Anyway, I assume that APR links with glibc dynamically which answers
my original question.

> 2. FSF language around 'linking' in respect to Java (and other modern
> runtimes) are such that it doesn't "link" in their eyes, but always
> produces Derivative Work. IIUIC, that means that we need to require
> that downstream users may reverse-engineer the packages. For ASF's
> software, that isn't really a problem, but it may be for commercial
> entities down the line.

I actually had learned this (by now!) but you have put it well.

> 3. Henri's comment about "not enabled by default" refers to that
> projects are discouraged to set up a structure where to use Apache
> Abc, one is required to also use SF Xyz (MIT) and SF Def (GPL),
> otherwise Apache Abc isn't operational to any reasonable degree. In
> Log4J terms, if there is a Log4J Appender at SF under MIT license,
> which uses some GPL'd work allowing logging to (let's say) FaceBook
> groups, then that is Ok provided it is not configured by default.
> BlueSky project (in Incubator) depends heavily on multimedia content
> and had ffmpeg.lib at the center of that. It is not optional, and
> BlueSky is working to replace it.

Makes sense.

-- 
Ceki G�lc�
Logback: The reliable, generic, fast and flexible logging framework for Java.
http://logback.qos.ch

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