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Adam Nielsen a.nielsen at shikadi.net>> "Once this change is made in a given copy, it is irreversible >> for that copy, so the ordinary GNU General Public License >> applies to all subsequent copies and derivative works made >> from that copy." >> >> I am not a lawyer, but it seems to me that this statement >> implicates that the library license is more restricted and >> that things you are allowed to do under the library license >> are still allowed under the general license. > > Clearly you're not. It's pretty much exactly the opposite actually. I think you misread Leif's message - what was said is correct. You can take an LGPL library and relicense it under the GPL, but you can't go back to LGPL again. Yes, this implies the license becomes more restrictive, because there are things you can do under the LGPL that you can no longer do once it becomes GPL. > LGPL is _LESS_ restrictive and among those additional freedom, you can > relicense it under GPL. Yes, this is what Lief suggested. >> This means you are free to use the rtlsdr dll available >> at osmocom but you can not distribute an executable in >> which the library is linked in. > > ??? How exactly did you go from taking a software distributed using > GPL (rtl-sdr and librtlsdr) and just apply LGPL clauses to it ??? > > As said above you can't do that at all. I think what Leif was getting at is that you can do whatever you want if you don't distribute it. The GPL and other licenses only come into effect once you distribute something to someone else. > If you link to librtlsdr.so, you _have_ to be a GPL compatible license > and that's it. That's how GPL works. If I understand correctly, Leif was suggesting a workaround. Instead of distributing something that violates the license, you could distribute something in two halves (each in compliance), along with instructions on how to link them together. Once linked they can no longer be distributed, but because you were distributing them separately you wouldn't be violating any licenses. I'm not sure what the legal implications of this are. On the one hand what you're distributing complies with the license, but then by providing instructions on how to link them together there is clear intent to bypass the restrictions imposed by the licenses. I guess this is where advice from the SFLC comes in. Cheers, Adam.