Re: [Libusb-win32-devel] Using libusb in a commercial application (LGPL / GPL)

[Xiaofan C. <xia...@gm...>]

On Fri, Feb 11, 2011 at 11:47 PM,  <sve...@ag...> wrote:
> Hi everybody,
>
> first I’d like to thank everyone involved for the great work on this
> project. Using the INF-Wizard and the examples, I had established
> communication to my USB instruments in almost no time.
>

Thanks.

> My understanding as of now is this: I may use programs and modules licensed
> under LGPL in commercial projects as long as I provide the required license
> and copyright information as well as the libusb source codes or a location
> where to download libusb source codes. My own work *does not* have to be
> licensed under LGPL or PGL in consequence.
>

I think this is right.

> From the sourceforge project page (see quote below) I understand that LGPL
> applies to DLL, import lib, examples and installers, while GPL applies to
> the drivers.

As long as you do not need to modify the driver, the GPL license does
not really matter to you (okay, other than WHQL...). If you change it,
then you have to publish your modifications.

>
> As far as I can see the installers are just executables *not* containing the
> drivers (nor the library files). So together with my project’s installer
> (preferably as a part of it) I would have to provide the installer
> executables  as well as the library and sys files (drivers). So, wouldn’t I
> have to show a reference (copyright, license, sources) to the actual drivers
> (and therefore the GPL license) as well, since they would be included in my
> (overall) installer? And wouldn’t that make the loosened restrictions of the
> LGPL somewhat useless?

I am not so sure what you mean here. Are you incorporating the driver
installer to your own installer? Since it is covered by LGPL, you can treat
it the same as the library. You do have to show a reference to the libusb-win32
driver installer. But you do not need to publish your installer source --
I do not see it as a problem.

-- 
Xiaofan