A little question about the LGPL licence

Hi !

If our society develop a jabber client using your XIFF library, could we sell our client or not ?

Thanks

You can sell GPL’‘d and LGPL’'d software, so long as you give away the source for free.

The real question is, what is the proper way of linking a closed source client to the LGPL’‘d XIFF library which allows the client to remain closed source without violating the LGPL? I’‘ve been reading the LGPL, and it seems to be written with the assumption that all software is written in C. It seems that the isolation must be sufficient to allow the user to modify the library, and make your closed source client work with the modified library. If your client meets that requirement (I don’‘t know how to do that in Flash, anyone?), it seems that all you have to do is redistribute the library’'s source code along with the copy of the GPL, and you can keep your client closed.

If someone can answer this, I need to know this too. Not to sell, but to integrate our online store with our jive messenger server so that customers can talk with salespeople without the salespeople needing to use two messaging clients.

Firstly, IANAL. Seek legal console if you are in doubt about the effects of your revenue stream.

The key to the GPLs is distribution. If you package an application and[/b] distribute it, you’‘re bound by the terms of the agreement. If you do not distribute it, then GPL does not apply to you. The distribution is tricky because if you have a flash application and that gets loaded on a clients computer, than you’‘re distributing it. If you’‘re using messenger on your site and make changes, but don’'t distribute, you do not have to make the source available to anyone.

LGPL only requires that any modifications made to the library be made available (this could mean requiring a user to send a letter to a po box and then sending the source printed on 3x4 index cards, but read the terms to make sure that non digital format is allowed). Your client does not need to be made available in source form.

To answer your question, if the build process for your flash client can be done by including a binary version of your client (a pre built library?) and a clear way to include the LGPL license then your ready to go. You can even be anti-social and send the binary on 3x4 index cards written in binary.

Hope this helps,

Noah