Google is Violating LGPL Source Code

[Hardy, Allan]

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.

You can't fullfill this by pointing to JFreeChart's or any other 3rd
party site, unless you have aocntreact with them to make the source
available on your behalf for 3 years.

Not providing source has had some legal suites and other actions in the
past years so it's a point of sensitivity.

So perhaps I don't understand GWT and the JFreeChart inclusion, but if
your including JFreeChart Binaries I don't see how you get around
Section 3 and the need for source?  

Allan


3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

    a) 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;
or,

    b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
    years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
    cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
    machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
    distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
    customarily used for software interchange; or,

    c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
    to distribute corresponding source code.  (This alternative is
    allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
    received the program in object code or executable form with such
    an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)


-----Original Message-----
From: Chris DiBona [mailto:cdibona at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 4:48 PM
To: Hardy, Allan
Cc: legal at lists.gpl-violations.org; Daniel Berlin
Subject: Re: Google is Violating LGPL Source Code

Seem we're fine, from Danny:

Google satisfies it's obligatins under the LGPL by section 6:
"
6. As an exception to the Sections above, you may also combine or link
a "work that uses the Library" with the Library to produce a work
containing portions of the Library, and distribute that work under
terms of your choice, provided that the terms permit modification of
the work for the customer's own use and reverse engineering for
debugging such modifications.

You must give prominent notice with each copy of the work that the
Library is used in it and that the Library and its use are covered by
this License. You must supply a copy of this License. If the work
during execution displays copyright notices, you must include the
copyright notice for the Library among them, as well as a reference
directing the user to the copy of this License. Also, you must do one
of these things:

...
#
# b) Use a suitable shared library mechanism for linking with the
Library. A suitable mechanism is one that (1) uses at run time a copy
of the library already present on the user's computer system, rather
than copying library functions into the executable, and (2) will
operate properly with a modified version of the library, if the user
installs one, as long as the modified version is interface-compatible
with the version that the work was made with.

"
There is simply no requirement that we offer the source directly or an
offer for source.

(Note it says "one of these things". not "all of these things").

Thanks for the heads up, maybe we'll tune the docs to make it more
clear how others can comply with the license.

Chris

On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 1:43 PM, Chris DiBona <cdibona at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have my guy looking at it now (run open source at google, saw your
> post on the list). Will respond once I know more. I remember clearing
> an earlier version of GWT, so I'm not stressing about it, yet :-)
>
> Chris
>
> On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 1:20 PM, Hardy, Allan <allan.hardy at lmco.com>
wrote:
>>
>>
>> Google has a package called GWT, Google Web Toolkit
>> http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/
>>
>>
>>
>> The binary distribution includes LGPL programs such as JFreeChart and
WebKit
>> 418.9
>>
>> They do not provide source
>>
>> They do not provide an offer
>>
>>
>>
>> All they do is provide a link to the JFreeChart website
>>
>>
>>
>> This is not, as I understand it, an acceptable method of fulfilling
source
>> code obligations
>>
>>
>>
>> How does one go about raising awareness with Google on this?
>
>
>
> --
> Open Source Programs Manager, Google Inc.
> Google's Open Source program can be found at http://code.google.com
> Personal Weblog: http://dibona.com
>



-- 
Open Source Programs Manager, Google Inc.
Google's Open Source program can be found at http://code.google.com
Personal Weblog: http://dibona.com