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Re: GPL vs. LGPL


From: David Kastrup
Subject: Re: GPL vs. LGPL
Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2010 14:15:14 +0100
User-agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.0.50 (gnu/linux)

Feifan Zhou <address@hidden> writes:

> What was the reason for releasing Lilypond under the GPL rather than
> the LGPL?

Because it is not a library?  Have you _read_ the terms of the LGPL?
They don't make much sense for the Lilypond code base and don't actually
offer anything more than the GPL (other than complications) if you are
not talking about something _used_ as a library.

> In keeping with Lilypond's philosopy of providing beautiful sheet
> music to everyone, I would believe that the LGPL would have been a
> better choice.

Could you point out which terms of the LGPL would be beneficial for
"providing beautiful sheet music to everyone"?

> My problem is that I have fallen in love with Lilypond. Its simplicity
> and the beauty of its output is quite stunning, and I believe it would
> look amazing on the iPad and make sheet music more readily
> available. I have plans for a public, open sheet music library that
> users can contribute to.  However, the GPLv3 does not allow me to use
> Lilypond in a commercial application.

The GPL most certainly allows you to use Lilypond in a commercial
application.  It does not allow you to use it in a proprietary
application, namely one where you don't give other people access to the
source code under the GPL along with the binaries.  Quite contrary to
the spirit of "providing beautiful sheet music to everyone", by the way.

> So, I'm asking for advice. Considering the license over Lilypond,
> which I have no intention of breaking, what should I do about my
> conundrum?  Are there alternatives that produce output of the same
> quality that I should consider?

Could you spell out what your problem with the license is?  In what
respect does it get in the way of what you want to be doing, and in what
respect does what you want to be doing benefit the Lilypond community?

Thanks

-- 
David Kastrup




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