Hello, Of August I was asked about RPM license, and I got following reply. > The issue of RPM's license only comes into play if you are > distributing RPM itself or any changes to RPM. For example, if it is using the linux os for embedded devices as it would not be a problem? In this case, it would distribute the rpm system. Therefore, if the license of librpmdb.so / librpmio.so aren't LGPL, there is a problem. It means that, the proprietary software which packaged by rpm and used in embedded devices, it have to open the source code. So, I want to clarify that librpmdb.so and librpmio.so are LGPL or not. Thanks in advance. > I am neither a lawyer nor a RPM developer, so keep that in mind as you > read my answer. > > My understanding is that you want to distribute an RPM package of > proprietary software, that is legally acceptable. For example, Skype > distributes RPMs of their software and it is most assuredly > proprietary. > > The issue of RPM's license only comes into play if you are > distributing RPM itself or any changes to RPM. > > > I hope this helps! > BC > > -- > Ben Cotton 2011/8/19 Hiroyuki Iizaka <hiizaka@xxxxxxxxxx>: > Hello, > > I asked to about a license of rpm several months ago. > > There is a customer hesitating about using rpm for distribution of > their proprietary software because this does not become clear. > > I asked same question to tec support of RH about this but I could > not get clear answer. Because the engineer who developed > it seemed to have already leave for another job. > > For the request of the customer, I ask it here once again. > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > According to COPYING file (rpm-4.3.3-6.0.7.1100783.src.rpm), > under lib subdirectory of RPM source code can distribute LGPL. > > -< rpm-4.3.3/COPYING >--------------------------------------------------- > ... > The entire code base may be distributed under the terms of the GNU General > Public License (GPL), which appears immediately below. Alternatively, > all of the source code in the lib subdirectory of the RPM source code > distribution as well as any code derived from that code may instead be > distributed under the GNU Library General Public License (LGPL), at the > choice of the distributor. > ... > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > But, the source code of librpmdb.so and librpmio.so are not > under lib subdirectory of RPM source code like following. > > # pwd > /work/RPM/rpm-4.3.3 > # ls -l > ... > drwxr-xr-x 2 10050 510 4096 Feb 1 2005 lib <-- lib subdirectory > ... > drwxr-xr-x 2 10050 510 4096 Feb 1 2005 rpmdb <-- separate directory > drwxr-xr-x 2 10050 510 4096 Feb 1 2005 rpmio <-- separate directory > > /usr/lib/librpmdb.so and /usr/lib/librpmio.so are shared library, > so I suppose that these licenses are LGPL. > > I checked under rpmdb and rpmio directory, but I couldn't find > any documentation or comment for license. > > The question is, the license of librpmdb.so / librpmio.so are LGPL? > > > Thanks in advance. > > -- > Hiroyuki Iizaka -- Hiroyuki Iizaka _______________________________________________ Rpm-list mailing list Rpm-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.rpm.org/mailman/listinfo/rpm-list
