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We want to use Automapper in commercial application (.NET 3.5). To get the clearance we need the source code of automapper.

We got the required automapper source code but after building the code we found that the size of automapper.dll 86KB while the DLL we were using was of 108 KB. Application was not working with this 86KB automapper dll

We looked into the code and found that another DLL LinFu.DynamicProxy of size 21KB . If I use this DLL with automapper DLL application works fine.

Based on that I conclude that the 108KB dll that I was using actually contains 86KB Automapper + 21 KB LinFu.DynamicProxy.

Now I have question related to licensing. Do I need to get the approval for LinFu.DynamicProxy as well. It comes with GNU license.

Bridge
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Ram
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  • Which version of AutoMapper are you using? I had removed LinFu in a later version. – Jimmy Bogard Jun 29 '12 at 20:37
  • @ Jimmy, We are using 1.0.0.155 (.NET 3.5 compatible) version. – Ram Jul 02 '12 at 04:49
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about licensing or legal issues, not programming or software development. [See here](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/274963/questions-about-licensing/274964#274964) and [here](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/139804/can-licensing-questions-ever-be-on-topic) for details, and the [help] for more. – JasonMArcher Jun 12 '15 at 21:17

1 Answers1

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Linfu appears to be licensed under L GPL (Lesser GPL).

The "Lesser" basically means you can use it in your application as an external component without having to change the license of your project (this isn't the exact definition of the license, you'll have to read it for the precise terms, but it's the general idea). The LGPL license is often used for open source libraries because you can easily embed them in commercial projects without impact to the commercial product itself.

If you do not plan to modify the Linfu dll, you can ship it with your commercial product. You don't even need to ask the permission to their author (if they licensed their project under LGPL, you already have the authorization). Just make sure you ship a readme.txt file (for example) that says Linfu is under LGPL plus a link to the LGPL, it should be OK.

ken2k
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  • Thanks for the reply. I want version 1.0.3.28303 of LinFu. can you please tell me from where I can get it? – Ram Jul 03 '12 at 06:12
  • @Ram You can download it from [here](http://code.google.com/p/linfu/downloads/detail?name=LinFu.DynamicProxy-1.031-release.zip&can=2&q=) – ken2k Jul 03 '12 at 08:59
  • Thanks for the help. However I need source code for this version. I am not used to google code. Can you please help me? – Ram Jul 03 '12 at 09:57
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    @Ram As you can see in the source control log, there is a revision for your version: http://code.google.com/p/linfu/source/detail?r=395 So just checkout their code (http://linfu.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/) using the revision number 395. – ken2k Jul 03 '12 at 10:04