14

I have a commercial Java application which I will be distributing.

I want to use an LGPL'd java library. I wont be modifying the library. Does the LGPL license of that library have any impact on my application's license?

pdeva
  • 43,605
  • 46
  • 133
  • 171
  • 6
    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) for details, and the [help] for more. – JasonMArcher Jun 03 '15 at 03:51

4 Answers4

14

Yes, it does to a certain degree. You are e.g required to allow people to upgrade the LGPL'd library without your help. I suggest reading through the whole license yourself, as you're legally obligated to adhere to it's clauses. Know what you oblige yourself to, don't just take other people's words for it :)

kusma
  • 6,516
  • 2
  • 22
  • 26
6

As far as I understand the LGPL, no, you can distribute it however you like. You will only be linking to the library, not creating a derivative work, and the LGPL doesn't restrict linking.

EMP
  • 59,148
  • 53
  • 164
  • 220
5

There is no impact on your application. LGPL license allows inclusion in commercial application as long as the terms of the license are fulfilled (LGPL license text in the distribution, indication of the use of the library, etc).

Laurent Etiemble
  • 27,111
  • 5
  • 56
  • 81
3

My guess is that as long as your linking is dynamic (i.e. dynamic loading of the .dll/.so/.a/.class/whatever file at runtime), you're OK. If you statically compile your code to include the library, you're at risk of violating the license, depending on how your code is structured.

If it's Java, however, you can not link statically - it's an impossibility of the platform.