Question about LGPL license for RPM package.

[Hiroyuki Iizaka]

Hello,

Of August I was asked about RPM license,
and I got following reply.


> The issue of RPM's license only comes into play if you are
> distributing RPM itself or any changes to RPM.

For example, if it is using the linux os for embedded devices
as it would not be a problem?
In this case, it would distribute the rpm system.

Therefore, if the license of librpmdb.so / librpmio.so aren't LGPL,
there is a problem.

It means that, the proprietary software which packaged by rpm and
used in embedded devices, it have to open the source code.

So, I want to clarify that librpmdb.so and librpmio.so are LGPL or not.

Thanks in advance.





> I am neither a lawyer nor a RPM developer, so keep that in mind as you
> read my answer.
>
> My understanding is that you want to distribute an RPM package of
> proprietary software, that is legally acceptable. For example, Skype
> distributes RPMs of their software and it is most assuredly
> proprietary.
>
> The issue of RPM's license only comes into play if you are
> distributing RPM itself or any changes to RPM.
>
>
> I hope this helps!
> BC
>
> --
> Ben Cotton




2011/8/19 Hiroyuki Iizaka <hiizaka at mvista.com>:
> Hello,
>
> I asked to about a license of rpm several months ago.
>
> There is a customer hesitating about using rpm for distribution of
> their proprietary software because this does not become clear.
>
> I asked same question to tec support of RH about this but I could
> not get clear answer. Because the engineer who developed
> it seemed to have already leave for another job.
>
> For the request of the customer, I ask it here once again.
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> According to COPYING file (rpm-4.3.3-6.0.7.1100783.src.rpm),
> under lib subdirectory of RPM source code can distribute LGPL.
>
> -< rpm-4.3.3/COPYING >---------------------------------------------------
> ...
> The entire code base may be distributed under the terms of the GNU General
> Public License (GPL), which appears immediately below.  Alternatively,
> all of the source code in the lib subdirectory of the RPM source code
> distribution as well as any code derived from that code may instead be
> distributed under the GNU Library General Public License (LGPL), at the
> choice of the distributor.
> ...
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> But, the source code of librpmdb.so and librpmio.so are not
> under lib subdirectory of RPM source code like following.
>
> # pwd
> /work/RPM/rpm-4.3.3
> # ls -l
> ...
> drwxr-xr-x  2 10050 510   4096 Feb  1  2005 lib    <-- lib subdirectory
> ...
> drwxr-xr-x  2 10050 510   4096 Feb  1  2005 rpmdb  <-- separate directory
> drwxr-xr-x  2 10050 510   4096 Feb  1  2005 rpmio  <-- separate directory
>
> /usr/lib/librpmdb.so and /usr/lib/librpmio.so are shared library,
> so I suppose that these licenses are LGPL.
>
> I checked under rpmdb and rpmio directory, but I couldn't find
> any documentation or comment for license.
>
> The question is, the license of librpmdb.so / librpmio.so are LGPL?
>
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> --
> Hiroyuki Iizaka



-- 
Hiroyuki Iizaka