[DUG] Open source licences

[Brian Wrigley]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Todd Martin" <toddm at kol.co.nz>
To: "NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List" <delphi at ns3.123.co.nz>
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2005 11:43 AM
Subject: [DUG] Open source licences


> Well I've read through the GPL, Lesser GPL, and Mozilla licences and I'm
> still a little confused.
>
> Am I correct in understanding I can develop and sell/lease a commercial
> application which uses open source code (links to it), without having to
> make my own code available, only in the case of the LGPL and Mozilla
> licences?

Essentially, yes. Both GNU and Mozilla open-source licences allow the use of
free software while preventing anyone from making the free software
proprietary. You must give users a way to get the source code of the
open-source software you use, and if you modify it, show which are your
changes.
Beyond that, there's a philosophical, political difference. Mozilla-licensed
software can be used by anyone; GNU code can only be used as part of other
open-source projects.
The GNU "Lesser GPL" aka "Library GNU" is an expediency - large parts of
linux are covered by this and if they were covered by the full GNU licence
instead, commercial software authors would have to re-implement these
functions inside their own programs.
It seems to me that the GNU organisation believes all software should be
free and their licence is a weapon through which they hope to achieve this.
The bottom line is, as you say, that you can use Mozilla code in commercial
programs, not GNU code (except LGPL'd code, in limited circumstances).

Regards,
Brian