#23944 [Opn]: mbstring *uses* LGPL sources making the entire PHP released under LGPL.

ID: 23944 Updated by: wez@php.net Reported By: hyamamoto at cybozu dot co dot jp Status: Open Bug Type: mbstring related Operating System: Any PHP Version: 4.3.2 New Comment: AFAIK, the original author(s) have given permission to distribute under the terms of the PHP license (for the actual mbstring/jstring part at least). It does seem that mbregexp is a derivative work. (it used to be a separate extension from mbstring before it was introduced into the php core). Rui, Moriyoshi and Yasuo might be able to help clear things up here. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-06-01 19:46:42] hyamamoto at cybozu dot co dot jp According to the header lines of the LGPL source files: 1) mbfilter*.{c,h} may be written specifically for mbstring by a Japanese. /* * "streamable kanji code filter and converter" * * Copyright (c) 1998,1999,2000,2001 HappySize, Inc. All rights reserved. * * This software is released under the GNU Lesser General Public License. * (Version 2.1, February 1999) * Please read the following detail of the licence (in japanese). ... 2) mbregex.{h,c} This is released from Free Software Foundation (FSF), and modified by Japanese people originally for Ruby programming language. Comments describe its origin. /* Definitions for data structures and routines for the regular expression library, version 0.12. Copyright (C) 1985,89,90,91,92,93,95,96,97,98 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This file is part of the GNU C Library. Its master source is NOT part of the C library, however. The master source lives in /gd/gnu/lib. The GNU C Library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. The GNU C Library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Library General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public License along with the GNU C Library; see the file COPYING.LIB. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. */ /* Multi-byte extension added May, 1993 by t^2 (Takahiro Tanimoto) Last change: May 21, 1993 by t^2 */ /* modified for Ruby by matz@netlab.co.jp */ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-06-01 19:30:30] rasmus@php.net Ugh. I had no idea it was under the LGPL. Wasn't this thing written specifically for PHP? And as such, is our version a modified version of the original? If it has not been modified then we are allowed to distribute a verbatim copy of it even if it is under the LGPL. It is only if we modify it and/or distribute something less than the entire library that we become a derivative work. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-06-01 18:52:57] hyamamoto at cybozu dot co dot jp The current implementation of mbstring uses two Lesser GNU General Public License (LGPL) sources. As LGPL does *not* allow derived softwares to be released under license terms other than LGPL, the entire PHP sources must be released under LGPL rather than PHP license. Alternatively, we may separate mbstring from the main PHP archive until it becomes LGPL-free. # As you may know, LGPL *does* allow their sources as # just (dynamic link) libraries. But mbstring itself # makes use of LGPL sources as its internal utilities. The sources are: 1) ext/mbstring/mbfilter*.{c,h} for multibyte character conversion. 2) ext/mbstring/mbregex.{c,h} for multibyte regular expression. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=23944&edit=1