On Thu, 2007-09-20 at 13:39 +0200, Florian Weimer wrote:

> (Plain LGPL doesn't
> > have a static linking exception as Ocaml's libraries do).
> 
> It does, and it's quite straightforward to fulfill. 

A derivative work has conditions imposed on it which are contrary 
to normal (closed source/proprietary) commercial practice.

As I read the licence, the provider must make it possible for the
user to link an alternate or modified library. Static linked executables
provided by commercial vendors very rarely provide any way to do that.

Whether or not the conditions are straightforward to fulfil
depends on the producers goals. If you were making an embedded
application it would almost certainly not be, and it would
be a legal impediment. Do you know any vendors of console
games, for example, that tell you how to modify a part of the
game? The software build processes used are almost certainly
trade secrets.

Even in my own FFAU product, whilst the whole of the sources
is available for inspection and modification, I certainly
don't document all of it -- if you want to modify a library
you'll have to go read all the source and find out yourself.

It isn't clear that satisfies the "make it possible for the
client to replace the library" requirement.


-- 
John Skaller <skaller at users dot sf dot net>
Felix, successor to C++: http://felix.sf.net