Google is Violating LGPL Source Code

[Stephen C. Fedder]

Thanks, however at this address is the binary distributions, not the source
distributions for jfreechart.  I do see that for some of the other libraries
in this tools/lib section that there are both source and binary
distributions - I am guessing this is where you will post the corresponding
source in the svn, correct?  You should document this location in the
COPYING file and license info online along with the link to jfree site.


-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Berlin [mailto:dannyb at google.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 6:22 PM
To: Stephen C. Fedder
Cc: legal at lists.gpl-violations.org
Subject: Re: RE: Google is Violating LGPL Source Code

http://code.google.com/p/google-web-toolkit/source/browse/#svn/tools/lib/jfr
eechart

The wiki goes through why it's split like this, but i can have them
move it to trunk if you want.

On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 6:11 PM, Stephen C. Fedder <sfedder at hotmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi Daniel,
>
>
>
> I just downloaded through svn the entire distribution from the google code
> page for GWT and the jfreechart source is not included in that
distribution
> as far as I can tell, although it is referenced in the included classes. 
Is
> there a different svn source distribution I should be looking for other
than
> the official one on the web?
>
>
>
> It does seem to look for a folder in the build to include these libraries
> from jar files, i.e. build.xml for the library I referenced:
>
>
>
>   <target name="wardir" description="Create the target war directory">
>
>     <copy todir="${war}">
>
>       <fileset dir="war" excludes="WEB-INF/classes/marker" />
>
>     </copy>
>
>     <mkdir dir="${war}/WEB-INF/lib" />
>
>     <copy todir="${war}/WEB-INF/lib" file="${gwt.servlet.jar}" />
>
>     <copy todir="${war}/WEB-INF/lib"
> file="${gwt.tools.lib}/jfreechart/jfreechart-1.0.3.jar" />
>
>     <copy todir="${war}/WEB-INF/lib"
> file="${gwt.tools.lib}/jfreechart/jcommon-1.0.6.jar" />
>
>   </target>
>
>
>
> If the source for the LGPL is included in an svn distro, this should be
> noted/linked to in the licensed software notes in addition to the link to
> the jfree site to avoid these kind of questions.

...
>
>
>
> Steve
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Daniel Berlin [mailto:dannyb at google.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 5:51 PM
>
> To: Stephen C. Fedder
> Cc: legal at lists.gpl-violations.org
> Subject: Re: RE: Google is Violating LGPL Source Code
>
>
>
> We do provide the source archives for jfreechart, at the exact same place
we
> provide the gwt downloads
> They are in the svn repository, rather than on the downloads page. We have
> done this since the first release of gwt
> The docs link to the original website not because you have to go there to
> get source, but because that is where it came from.
>
> On Apr 7, 2009 5:27 PM, "Stephen C. Fedder" <sfedder at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Sorry, I was not aware that the jfree chart library was actually included
as
> binary files, and no-one had mentioned this before in the thread, which
was
> why I commented that it would be helpful to know that fact positively
before
> starting a thread.  I still think that the potential non-compliance should
> also be conveyed/discussed with the vendor before bringing up a public
> complaint, as these things tend to often get blown out of proportion.
>
> In the case that the product is included in the war distribution, which is
> essentially an archive/aggregation that is unpacked to the target
directory
> on the server, I would agree that this inclusion (IANAL) does not require
> the package under the GPL, as would directly linking source code in a
> binary, since the jfreechart jar file could still easily be replaced by
the
> user with another version compiled from source.  Inclusion of the binaries
> in the war does mean that there is a requirement to provide access to the
> source code for the version(s) of the LGPL binaries that are incorporated
> into the war being distributed.  Providing a link to the website of the
> original distribution is good, however to comply, companies archive and
> provide LGPL source file distributions for any past binary distributions
> they have used in a binary form on the same site they distribute the
> application on.  This could just be a conglomerate L/GPL source site, for
> example, covering all applications fielded by the company using L/GPL
> software.
>
> Section 6. of LGPL 2.1 does specifically state that the source for the
> unmodified or modified LGPL library, even if just aggregated or
dynamically
> linked with the product, must still be provided.  Section 6 is meant to
> specifically allow use of the software as a library without the viral
nature
> of GPL infecting software that merely uses the standard interfaces (API)
of
> the library.  It does not remove the responsibility to distribute the
source
> code for the library in any case where an object-only form is distributed.
> (anyone here please correct me if I'm wrong).
>
> I do see in the file gwt-benchmark-viewer.jar in the distribution that the
> jfree chart package is included as binary class files.  Since the class
> files are actually embedded in a jar, not just the war itself, the library
> is not actually being used as a separate package (LGPL would usually be
> distributed as a separate jar file rather than the class files being
> embedded with an application).  This makes it more problematic for an end
> user to recompile and replace the jfree package in the binary distribution
> of the application, which is a large part of the "freedom" afforded by the
> clauses in the LGPL - someone help me out here...
>
> The start of a listing of the a jar file in the GWT distribution showing
the
> beginning of the jfree distribution is below...
>
> Steve
...