David A. Wheeler's Blog

Mon, 24 Sep 2007

FLOSS License Slide - Modified for LGPL

My “Free-Libre / Open Source Software (FLOSS) FLOSS License Slide” helps people figure out if the most widely-used FLOSS licenses are compatible (that is, if you can combine their software to produce new works). The main body of the PDF text fits all on one page, which can be handy.

My thanks to Olaf Schmidt, who found an error of omission in the previous version of my “slide”. He pointed out to me that the GNU Lessor General Public License (LGPL) 2.1 is even more compatible with various versions of the GPL than the plain reading of my “slide” originally noted. That’s because the LGPL has explicit text noting that you can switch its license to GPL version 2 or later, and similarly LGPL version 3 explicitly says that you can also use GPL version 3 or later. I fixed this by adding one more arrow to my diagram, which was enough to capture this. I also noted that the previous version of the LGPL is version 2.1, not 2 (previous versions of the LGPL exist but are becoming uncommon). I also added some additional text, so I hope that the LGPL-related text is even clearer now.

Enjoy!

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