#84 Need to relicense to LGPL for use on Android

[JERRY ZHANG]

I saw an older case on this as well but I figured I would create a new ticket since we have a specific use-case and can give more details.

We're making a product that is based on an Android device with an stm32f4 connected via usb. We're planning to update the microcontroller via an android app using the dfu protocol, and this seems to be the only major project providing that functionality. The only caveat is that exec'ing binaries from an Android app is discouraged, and doesn't work on some implementations. We would need to use this project as a library, but then run into the issue of it being licensed as GPL.

Are the developers still open to relicensing as LGPL as hinted in the TODO file? If so, what can I do to expedite this process? I'm of course happy to contribute back the changes I make to provide library functionality, and can also contribute changes and instructions that would the library to work on nonrooted Android devices.

Thanks

[Tormod Volden]

I understand from https://sourceforge.net/p/dfu-util/dfu-util/merge-requests/10/ that you have found a way to "embed" the dfu-util executable without having to make a library out of it. I think we should follow that path, and implement the fd passing if it will be needed. OTOH, reworking the source code to provide library functionality could be interesting over long term, but doing large changes risks breaking so many things that I wouldn't prioritize it. I might update the TODO to reflect this.

Not sure how this "embedding" of an executable like it was a library works out with the GPL though.

[JERRY ZHANG]

That sounds fine to me. We were initially unsure about forking executables on android but it seems to be working out well so far. I'll make some additional comments in the other ticket specifically related to that.

As far as GPL, I'm definitely not a lawyer, but my basic understanding is that it allows "aggregates" : https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#MereAggregation.