[cairo] Cairo license change follow-up

[Carl Worth]

On Fri, 13 Aug 2004 15:23:56 -0400, Brian Victor wrote:
> 6. As an exception to the Sections above, you may also combine or link a
> "work that uses the Library" with the Library to produce a work
> containing portions of the Library, and distribute that work under terms
> of your choice, provided that the terms permit modification of the work
> for the customer's own use and reverse engineering for debugging such
> modifications.
> 
> My reading of this is that the entire work needs to be user-modifiable,
> which would seem to require the source to be open.  Does your reading
> differ from mine?

My reading is different than yours.

As far as licensing goes, one generally gets what written and no more.

The language above require the "terms of your choice" to "permit
modification", but doesn't say anything at this point about how the
modification must be carried out. So I can only assume that permission
to flip bits in a binary executable without source would be
sufficient. Contrast this with the language in the GPL regarding "the
preferred form of the work for making modifications" which is notably
absent here.

Additionally, there is language in the Preamble of the LGPL that guides
my interpretation of this section. It says that for certain software,
(for which the LGPL is appropriate), it is important that "non-free
programs must be allowed to use the library".

-Carl

PS. I am not a lawyer, nor does anything here or any other message from
me constitute legal advice.  If you thought otherwise, you should
consult an actual lawyer, or better yet, a psychiatrist.