[cairo] License question

Thomas Stover thomas at wsinnovations.com
Mon Nov 5 15:23:30 PST 2007


Can somebody clear this up for me? I want to know if I could (in 
concept) make a closed source application that uses the graphviz 
libraries, like with LGPL libraries. I can't deal with reading the 
legalese. This is not something I even really want to do, but the 
question was brought up.

 From IBM's Common Public License FAQ:
 
Q: When I incorporate a portion of a Program licensed under the CPL into 
my own proprietary product distributed in object code form, can I use a 
single license for the full product, in other words, covering the 
portion of the Program plus my own code?

A: Yes. The object code for the product may be distributed under a 
single license as long as it references the CPL portion and complies, 
for that portion, with the terms of the CPL.

This makes it sound like the answer is yes, but that is only from the 
vague impression the answer gives that you can "separate out" the CPL 
portions of a binary program.

Understand that this is of coarse a different issue from modifying 
graphviz code itself.





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