Re: [rtl] Re: [realtime] License issues

[David Olofson <david.olofson@reologica.se>]

On Wednesday 21 February 2001 20:03, Philip N Daly wrote:
> A further question ... this time for the RTAI developers: since RTAI is
> open source what is the point of using the LGPL?

If it wasn't LGPL, you wouldn't be allowed to link closed source code to it - 
statically or dynamically.

The LGPL allows this, provided that you either link dynamically, or make the 
object files available so that users can link with other versions of the 
LGPLed software.


> Am I correct in thinking
> that license issues that affect me can be overcome by the RTAI development
> team switching to GPL - that way RTAI would conform to license paragraph
> 1A.

Well, unless RTAI has an "exception paragraph" like the one in the Linux 
kernel license (which is originally GPL, but made slightly more similar to 
LGPL through this exception), you'd have to release your source code, or stay 
away from RTAI. AFAIK, there is no way around that, with pure GPL software. 
(At least, that was the idea, and I *hope* it actually works that way legally 
- or the GPL wouldn't provide the protection people want from it.)


//David

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