libsmbclient licensing
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From: simo on 28 May 2010 10:40 On Fri, 2010-05-28 at 14:07 +0400, Andrew Marinchuk wrote: > Dear Samba team, > > We have developed cross-platform multiprotocol intranet file searcher > and it includes the module (SMB scanner for *nix) which uses > libsmbclient to enumerate all files on smb shares ("uses" means > including headers and linking with library). Other modules also use some > external libraries, but all other libraries have LGPL license. > We prefer to publish our searcher's code under BSD license, but > GPL-license of libsmbclient forces us to use GPL. According to our local > laws, such GPL requirements are invalid, also we don't see why client > library does not use LGPL, however if libsmbclient license will never be > licensed under LGPL, we will use double licensing scheme (although this > is not what we want). > > Are there a chance that libsmbclient will be licensed under LGPL? Or > could someone give use permission to link libsmbclient with BSD code? > Thanks in advance! Andrew, allegations that GPL provisions are invalid in Russia are just a myth, as far as I know. The GPL is perfectly enforceable in Russia like in any other country that signed the Berne Convention. First and foremost, I am not a lawyer and I am not giving you legal advice. If you want a definitive answer you should ask your lawyers and eventually have them contact our lawyers at the SFC (Software Freedom Conservancy). You can ask me in private if you need further details on how and who to contact. That aside, let's come to the licensing of your application. Anything I say here is purposefully vague because I have *not* seen your application code so I don't know any specifics, I am trusting the vague description you made. The GPL requires the whole work to be released under the terms of the GPL, but has no requirements to make you *change* the license for all the code you independently developed (non derivative). I guess you can release most of your source code under BSD. If you distribute binaries with libsmbclient compiled in, then yes, those binaries will need to be released under the GPL. If your application is modular enough to be compiled w/o libsmbclient support I guess you can also offer 2 versions (one with the lib and one w/o) and have 2 different licenses for those binaries. I suggest you really contact your lawyers to understand exactly what are the boundaries and how the GPL interacts with other parts of your application licensing-wise. The Samba Team has so far distributed libsmbclient as a GPL library, we know it can be annoying at times but so far we haven't seen the need to weaken the license. Unless there is a strong reason, release under weaker licenses is not likely. Simo. NOTE: If you are writing on behalf of an Open Source project not backed by a for profit company and don't have access to a lawyer, please contact me off-list and we can see what legal advice the SFC can give us to help you out. -- Simo Sorce Samba Team GPL Compliance Officer <simo(a)samba.org> Principal Software Engineer at Red Hat, Inc. <simo(a)redhat.com> -- To unsubscribe from this list go to the following URL and read the instructions: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/options/samba |