[kwlug-disc] Switch license or keep it the same?

[Paul Nijjar]

Licenses are so weird. 

In the C/C++ context, I thought that linking to a GPLed library means
your code has to be GPL as well. That is (I thought) why the LGPL
exists -- so that a program that is not GPLed can link to a library
that is without having to be GPL itself. 

When I use a GPLed module in Python it is different?

I agree that I am not distributing the source of the library. The
requirements.txt file specifies the dependency so that my end user can
pull in the requirements. But I am struggling to understand why 

from pyshorteners import Shortener 

is not analogous to linking to a C library. Like, if I wrote a program
that has 

#include <pyshorteners.h>

in my C code but do not distribute the code for pyshorteners.c and
expect end users to download it and compile the program themselves,
then my C program would not need to be GPL even if pyshorteners.c was?

It is not even clear to me why I couldn't distribute the source to
pyshorteners.c along with my source. Isn't that how distributions
ship collections of both GPL and non-GPL code?

- Paul


On Thu, Apr 12, 2018 at 03:50:24PM -0400, doug moen wrote:
> You don't have to change the copyright licence on your files if they
> reference other files that are GPL3. You own the copyright on your own
> files, you can attach any licence you want, and the GPL doesn't have the
> legal power to force you to do otherwise. So keep the Apache 2 licence in
> place. But you should note the dependency on a GPL'ed library somewhere,
> perhaps in the README file.
> 
> The GPL on pyshorteners only affects you if you distribute a combined work
> that incorporates both GPL'ed files and your files in a single work; then
> the entire combined work must be distributed on the terms of the GPL, even
> though individual files within that combined work may be distributed
> separately using the Apache 2 licence.
> 
> If somebody later wants to change your code to remove the pyshorteners
> dependency, they can do so, and then they will only be subject to Apache 2.
>