Re: libgcj / Classpath relicensing and cooperation

[Bryce McKinlay <bryce at albatross dot co dot nz>]

Tom Tromey wrote:

> I think it is a bad idea to put a GPL'd library into libgcj.

/* Component.java -- Superclass of all AWT components
/*
/* Copyright (c) 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
/* Written by Aaron M. Renn (arenn@urbanophile.com)
/*
/* This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
/* it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License as
published
/* by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or
/* (at your option) any later verion.

The classpath AWT is not GPL'd, its LGPL'd. There is an important
distinction. I dont see how it could retrospectively be made less free by
being converted to a GPL license - old copies would still be licensed under
the LGPL.

Some important points about the LGPL (correct me if I'm wrong):

- its the very same license that glibc uses.
- some components of gcc are already licensed under the LGPL
- LGPL does NOT prohibit static linking of LGPL'ed code into a proprietary
application, however it does require that a dynamically linked or
re-linkable version of the application must also be made available. (this
is why cyghat doesnt like it?)

regards

  [ bryce ]