Re: A Licensing Question

John Wells said: > Can I safely use GPL'd libraries, classes, etc. (i.e. PearDB) and > resources that fall under other open source licenses when developing the > app and let them redistribute accordingly, or would that be a violation? I don't know anything about the licensing terms of PearDB. Read the GPL at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html . A program that uses GPL libraries must be distributed under the terms of the GPL. The LGPL is primarily for the case when a person writes a library and wants GPL-like protection for the library itself, but wants to allow linking of non-Free programs. It might get a little hazy around what is "linking" in the case of a scripting language. I think the guideline is whether you call the lib through a language construct or a system call. I.e. include() vs exec(). > Also, thinking ahead here a bit, if they wanted to use something like > Zend Encoder on the project, what sort of added gotchas could that bring > up? Consider printing out the licenses in question and have the company's lawyer look at it. Again, I don't know the specifics of Pear or PHP, but in general core libs of a language are licensed in such a way that you can put any terms you want on code that relies on them. Good Luck! And seriously, talk to a lawyer. -Peter