Google is Violating LGPL Source Code

[Hardy, Allan]

Hi,

Yep, wrong version, went to FSF and site, old version and went too old
in haste
The section I should have copied is 4 in LGPL 2.1  I copied it below

So, help me understand, is JFreeChart part of the GWT binary
distribution or not?

The Section 6 is only going to apply as you say if you are NOT
distributing the JFreeChart binaries with GWT, 

Example 6b - if already on a customers machine and you link in as a
shared library that kind of thing.  But GWT Seems to include the source,
not make it a pre-requisite the user must install on their own

Are you claiming 6 a, b, c, d, or e?  Only 6b or 6e are going to get you
out of having to provide source.

You may have the workings of an Offer by saying its available with the
source at:
http://code.google.com/p/google-web-toolkit/source/browse/#svn/tools/red
ist/

Though one could argue that SVN requirement doesn't make the source
available in the same way the binary was.

What started me on this was the Copying file doesn't say go to Google...
for the source, it says go to JFreeChart

Allan



4. You may copy and distribute the Library (or a portion or
derivative of it, under Section 2) in object code or executable form
under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you accompany
it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which
must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a
medium customarily used for software interchange.

  If distribution of object code is made by offering access to copy
from a designated place, then offering equivalent access to copy the
source code from the same place satisfies the requirement to
distribute the source code, even though third parties are not
compelled to copy the source along with the object code.



-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Berlin [mailto:dannyb at google.com] 
Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 5:32 PM
To: Hardy, Allan
Cc: chris at dibona.com; legal at lists.gpl-violations.org
Subject: Re: Google is Violating LGPL Source Code

On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 5:14 PM, Hardy, Allan <allan.hardy at lmco.com>
wrote:
> Hi Chris
>
> That was quick, thanks for responding.
>
> I sorta do this for a living for my company, a very large defense
> contractor, F/OSS advocacy/evangelize and set policy/permissions to
use.
>
> So I hope your wrong and I'm right or I really don't know my stuff :)
>
> The requirement I speak of is in LGPL Section 3, which I copied below.
> LGPL and GPL is pretty much the same - provide the source with
binaries
> or make an offer.
>

First, you seem to be referencing some really old version of the LGPL.

LGPL v2.1 (which is what the libraries you are talking about are
under) has this as section 3:
"  3. You may opt to apply the terms of the ordinary GNU General Public
License instead of this License to a given copy of the Library.  To do
this, you must alter all the notices that refer to this License, so
that they refer to the ordinary GNU General Public License, version 2,
instead of to this License.  (If a newer version than version 2 of the
ordinary GNU General Public License has appeared, then you can specify
that version instead if you wish.)  Do not make any other change in
these notices.
"
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.txt
I'd love to know where you are copying section 3 from, so we can get
on the same page :)

...
> provide the source with binaries or make an offer.

First, the source to all version of stuff used with gwt is available
in the source distribution.
http://code.google.com/p/google-web-toolkit/source/browse/#svn/tools/red
ist/

For the binary distributions of GWT, GWT itself is known as a "work
that uses the library".
Section 5 covers what happens with these:

"  5. A program that contains no derivative of any portion of the
Library, but is designed to work with the Library by being compiled or
linked with it, is called a "work that uses the Library".  Such a
work, in isolation, is not a derivative work of the Library, and
therefore falls outside the scope of this License.

  However, linking a "work that uses the Library" with the Library
creates an executable that is a derivative of the Library (because it
contains portions of the Library), rather than a "work that uses the
library".  The executable is therefore covered by this License.
Section 6 states terms for distribution of such executables.
"


Section 6 is as I quoted before, and only requires you use a linking
mechanism that allows replacement of the library, which we do.