Google is Violating LGPL Source Code

[Stephen C. Fedder]

Thanks - just an oversight I'm sure since the source for almost every other
package used is present in the tree.

-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Berlin [mailto:dannyb at google.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 12:25 PM
To: Stephen C. Fedder
Cc: legal at lists.gpl-violations.org
Subject: Re: RE: Google is Violating LGPL Source Code

It's now been readded.
http://code.google.com/p/google-web-toolkit/source/detail?r=5196

(It appears to have been overwritten quite early, before gwt actually
made it to svn and was still internal to google. Sigh.).

On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 6:55 PM, Daniel Berlin <dannyb at google.com> wrote:
> 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
>> ...
>>
>>
>