What are the extents of the meaning of "distributing" under the LGPL license?

Question

This question is a follow up on one of my other questions, Can I legally Incorporating GPL & LGPL, open-sourced software in a proprietary, closed-source project?

Many of the conditions of the LGPL license are based on the notion of distribution. My company does business as a consultant. We are contracted to create software, which we deliver to our clients. Does this constitute distribution under the LGPL license?

We have also made available the software, to our clients, for download through a password-protected file server. Does this constitute distribution?

Answer 1

Yes, both those cases constitute distribution. If it's leaving the hands of the developer, it's being distributed. That is of course, assuming that your company is the license holder, not your client.

Answer 2

I think that what you do is "distribution". At any rate, the support of a lawyer is important in this case.

Answer 3

Your first question really depends on the contract you develop software under. Do you deliver a complete product or work on a hour-by-hour basis? Who retains copyright over the software?

I'd say that in general if you work as a contractor, its your client that has to deal with these issues.

Yes, download via password protection constitutes distribution in my opinion, and you would have to distribute source code in the same manner.

Answer 4

Any time you give someone else a copy of some software you have distributed that software. It does not have to be to the public at large to qualify as distribution.

Answer 5

Yes it does. One of the reasons the GPL came into being in the first place was to prevent the situation where somebody had a binary, but no source to go with it.

IANAL, so I can't speak to whether the consultancy-client relationship would constitute a loophole which you could use to avoid passing on source code, but it is certainly against the license's intent to do what you're suggesting.

Answer 6

First off, I am not a lawyer. You should probably consult one.

When your client receives your program or libraries, you are distributing to that client. This means that you must offer to supply your client with the source code, as per the GPL. HOWEVER, if the distribution goes no farther than that, you are NOT required to distribute your code to the public at large.

If, however, the client distributes the code, they become a distributor under the terms of the GPL, and are then required to offer the code to their customers/clients/whatever.

Note that the GPL does not require that source code is given to the client at the same time that they receive the binary. You must, however, give the client a written offer to give them the source code at their request, for no further cost to them.