Re: Releasing software with a GTK front end

[John K Luebs <jkluebs luebsphoto com>]

On Wed, Jun 23, 2004 at 10:36:34AM +0200, Frank Naumann wrote:
> Hello!
>
> > 5. You have to use the dynamic version - static linking is prohibited
>
> That's wrong. From the copyright view there is no difference between 
> static and dynamic linking (it's a technical difference).

You are right that copyright law looks at the issue no differently (at
least that's what the passage you quoted is saying). However, since
the licenses is giving additional terms to what is in the law, the
person you're replying to is oversimplifying, but not totally wrong.

> > That's it - for more information:
>
> http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html
>
> [...]  When a program is linked with a library, whether statically or 
> using a shared library, the combination of the two is legally speaking a 
> combined work, [...]

Don't take this out of context. What they're saying, has to do with
basic copyright law without any additional licenses. It is the LGPL
that is making the distinction. In fact that is the very point. The LGPL
is saying: copyright law doesn't give a crap about this distinction,
we are withing our rights to call you application a combined work
regardless of how you link it but we will make a distinction and be
more liberal with closed source distribution if you use a facility that
allows the user control over the LGPL'ed code through dynamic linking
or relinkable application code.

Be sure to read section 5 and 6. It is a natural result of the terms
in 5 that either a) or b) are options. You need to either use a dynamic
linking facility, OR provide the application "work that uses the
Library" in a form that can be relinked with the library (this would
usually mean distributing the .o files of the "work that uses the
Library"). Since it is more convenient to use a shared library
system, most people ignore/forget about the .o alternative.

--jkl