Is Hibernate right about the LGPL?

[Lasse Reichstein Nielsen]

Greetings all.

I am discussing the wording of <URL:http://www.hibernate.org/196.html>  
with someone.
Hibernate is a Java library released under the LGPL. The page above states  
that:
---
 The use of the unmodified Hibernate binary of course never affects the  
license of
 your application or distribution.
---
I am disagreeing with this (and the person I'm discussing it with agrees,  
hence
the discussion).

If a product combines the hibernate.jar file with its own code, e.g., in  
an EAR file
(for deployment on a J2EE server), I see this as linking (in the sense of  
section 5
of the LGPL), creating a work that is a derivative of the Library. That  
means that
distribution is allowed by section 6. However, section 6 *does* impose  
restrictions
on the license of the application: The license *must* allow the user to  
make modifications
of the work for his own use (and reverse engineering to debug such).

My worthy opponent says that this right to make modifications only covers  
the LGPL-part,
i.e., the Library. I can't see that in the wording, since it would have  
said "the Library",
not "the work" in that case.

So, am I reading this correctly (and is the Hibernate people wrong on this  
page)?

Regards
/L
--
Lasse R. Nielsen - atwork@infimum.dk
 'Faith without judgement merely degrades the spirit divine'