LGPL and Dual Licensing Ajax Library

Question

Hi guys, I'm the previous founder of Gaiaware and Gaia Ajax Widgets and when I used to work there we had this rhetoric (which I have confirmed with some very smart FOSS people is correct) that when using a GPL Ajax library you're basically "distributing" the JavaScript which in turn makes the GPL viral clause kick in and forces people to purchase a proprietary license if they're going to build Closed Source stuff...

So now I'm the the LGPL world here with Ra-Ajax which is an LGPL licensed library and I've got no intentions of creating a GPL licensed library since I believe strongly in that the LGPL is the "enabler" of the Open Web to prevail. But something interesting have happened which I think might still give me a "business model" here which is the Linking clause of the LGPL which I think goes something like this (pseudo);

"If you link to an LGPL licensed thing you get no restrictions on your own derived works"...

But so we started creating something we're calling Ajax Starter-Kits which effectively is a "Project Kickstarter" where you can download a finished project/solution which basically enables you to start out with some pre-done boiler plate code for problems such as Ajax DataGrids, Ajax Calendar Applications, Ajax TreeView Applications etc. And the funny thing is that our users would NOT "link" to these, they would effectively BE our users applications...

So to wrap up my question. Would this force users of our LGPL licensed Ajax Starter-Kits to LGPL license their own work? Basically if it does we have a business model (and I get very happy) if not I'd just have to hope people would still like to pay us those $29 for our Starter-Kits to support the project... ;)

Help rewarded with extreme gratitude...

Answer 1

For the sake of $29, depending on if this is per dev or per deployment, would happily pay that to make any future LGPL hassles go away.

For many of us, LGPL is not an option, have investors to keep happy, and would be in a world of pain if a requirement to go LGPL came up a year or two down the track. Getting a legal opinion on it, which may be crap anyway, is going to cost at least hundred$.

So, dont know if that answers your question (IANAL), but I would happily pay $29 or more, just to make any uncertainty go away.