RE: [Objectbridge-developers] OJB Licensing model

[Alex C. <ac...@in...>]

From: tho...@it... [mailto:tho...@it...]

> I have been contacted by several projects that would like to 
> use OJB but
> have problems in complying to the current GLP license model of OJB. 

I'm assuming you meant GPL... Out of curiosity, do you know the GPL's
position on Java bytecode?  AFAIK if the system is unable to run without a
particular library (i.e. it's "statically" linked using the "import"
keyword), and the library is GPL, the system must also be GPL.  If the
library is optional, distributed separately and selectable via a runtime
configuration option, you're okay.  LGPL would obviously allow the library
to be used anywhere.

> My intention is to have OJB used in such projects as long as 
> our copyright is respected and no commercial O/R system is 
> build by using our code. 

LGPL might be your best bet; the code itself cannot be used as the basis of
a proprietary library, but the library as a whole can be called on by
proprietary applications.

Personally, I don't really like the LGPL for this kind of project.  I
actually quite like what TrollTech has done with Qt, namely that it's
released under both the GPL (NOT the LPGL) and the QPL.  Developers who
don't want to GPL their own code must buy a commercial license under the
QPL, but GPL'd projects can use it freely.

HTH

-0xe1a