[Ecls-list] LGPL3 and AGPL3

[Daniel Herring]

IANAL...

On Fri, 18 Oct 2013, Matthew Mondor wrote:

> You are right about the AGPL, however, the LGPL3 license inherits from
> the GPL3 one (the LGPL2 license was standalone), and this is as part of
> the GPL3:
>
> "
>  13. Use with the GNU Affero General Public License.
>
>  Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, you have
> permission to link or combine any covered work with a work licensed
> under version 3 of the GNU Affero General Public License into a single
> combined work, and to convey the resulting work.  The terms of this
> License will continue to apply to the part which is the covered work,
> but the special requirements of the GNU Affero General Public License,
> section 13, concerning interaction through a network will apply to the
> combination as such.
> "
>
> Which is an invitation to include AGPL code (and whenever this happens,
> the rest of the project becomes tainted, with the new usage
> restrictions of the AGPL applying).


Here is my understanding of the issue.

Currently, some believe that "Bob cannot use LGPL2 code with AGPL code". 
This clause was added to clarify that "Bob can use LGPL3 code with AGPL 
code".  If Bob uses LGPL3 code with AGPL code, then he must distribute 
both the LGPL3 and the AGPL code, but the LGPL3 code does not change 
licenses.

In both cases, Bob's choice to use the AGPL does not affect Alice's choice 
to ignore the AGPL, just as long as Alice's project does not use any AGPL 
code.

So I have no problem with ECL adopting the LGPL3.  (Adopting the AGPL or 
relying on a core piece of AGPL code would be a different matter.)


- Daniel