As people asked in How can ROWLEX be licensed under L-GPL while it uses SemWeb which is GPL? there is no definition if ROWLEX could be used as a library freely in commercial projects. How free is to use it in such projects? Is it possible to contribute to this project and simultaneously use it freely in commercial sector?
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137answers:
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Q:
Could ROWLEX be used as .DLL files in commercial projects (because of some non-LGPL components)?
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A:
I don't know about ROWLEX specifically but generally yes, DLL-linked LGPL libraries can freely be used in any projects, including commercial projects, without the copyleft leaking to your code.
Of course, if you modify the library itself, then these modifications are subject to copyleft.
laalto
2009-06-30 10:10:29
The OPs point was that the LGPL app uses another more restrictive licensed GPL component. The solution is probably to link to the LGPL app and also offer its source code uner the GPL
Martin Beckett
2009-06-30 13:12:22
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A:
You can use ROWLEX in commercial projects AND you can contribute to it, too. If you decide to change ROWLEX and you bind it to your commercially distributed product, L-GPL forces you to publish the modifications.
If you decide to do both (contributing to ROWLEX and using the modified ROWLEX in a commercial product), I recommend you to strictly separate the two activities to avoid having your commercial product impacted by the L-GPL licensing issues. Do not just reuse the source code of ROWLEX in your commercial app, but keep ROWLEX (modified or unmodified) as a separately compiled dll. That independent dll can be linked to your commercial app without licensing penalties.
If you are interested in contributing, please send us a mail to admin at rowlex.net.
ROWLEX Admin
2009-06-30 12:56:09
It will be great, but there is one other DLL - SemWeb.dll what about it?
The_Ghost
2009-07-01 10:56:51
SemWeb is not part of ROWLEX, ROWLEX just uses it. It has its own licensing, so you will have to follow up with them.
ROWLEX Admin
2009-07-03 08:58:01
I digged a bit. SemWeb is dual licensed. As long as you stick to the features that are also available under Creative Common (i.e., the code that Joshua wrote), you are safe. If you touch/use code that is only GPL-ed, you are doomed. ROWLEX uses only those features that are available under Creative Common.
ROWLEX Admin
2009-07-03 10:02:34