Google is Violating LGPL Source Code

[Daniel Berlin]

Yeah, someone accidently replaced it with the binary distro, i'll
checkin the source again.


On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 6:41 PM, Stephen C. Fedder <sfedder at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 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
> ...
>
>