SN backend GPL or LGPL? (was: SourceNav release...)

[Davies, Mike]

Hi Robert,

IANAL,  but :

> If we did have the back end torn off of SN, would that make everything
> that used also GPL?

Yes, if it was an extension of GPLed code

> Can we take SN type GPL code, turn it into a library, and 
> then use it in
> an LGPL way?

Nope.

> What if we had some sort of Corba type middle ware that provided a
> decent distributed API, without actually linking the code in. 
>  Would any
> application that connected to it still be bound by the GPL?

Any changes you made to the Sourcenav Code would be GPLed and you would have
to provide them in the usual ways,  however it seems to me that any
application that used the CORBA interface would be effectively dynamically
linked to it and so might escape the GPL.

> I am trying to find out here if there is any room for commercial
> developers to contribute to SN.  It would be a shame to let 
> it all go to
> waste.

Well,  many commercial firms contribute to GPLed SW,  there is nothing
stopping you from doing that.  If you are trying to make a proprietry
version of SourceNav then this is prohibited by the licence.  That is quite
apart from the implications for the feelings of people who contributed their
efforts freely for the common good.


Mike Davies