[Biojava-l] Apache License vs. (L)GPL

[mark.schreiber at novartis.com]

In Biojava the main code is LGPL and some of our dependencies are Apache 
license. This doesn't seem to cause any problem. In your distribution you 
can release the biojava jars as LGPL, the dependencies as Apache and 
BioWeka as GPL. The only thorny part is code that you write which has 
dependency on Weka. This probably needs to be released as GPL under my 
understanding of the GPL.

Under my understanding of IP law (I'm not a lawyer) 99% of licensing is 
enforcability. If you release code under reasonable terms how likely is it 
that the Weka group will sue you? The remaining 1% is always negotiable. 
Why not ask the Weka group how they think it should be distributed? If you 
get a letter from them to say you can put an LGPL or Apache license on 
your code then your covered. They seem like reasonable people, they're 
from New Zealand. It's a small and reasonable nation : )

My pseudo-legal advice would be to negotiate this directly with the Weka 
group. Then everyone is happy.

- Mark

Mark Schreiber
Principal Scientist (Bioinformatics)

Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD)
10 Biopolis Road
#05-01 Chromos
Singapore 138670
www.nitd.novartis.com

phone +65 6722 2973
fax  +65 6722 2910





Michael Heuer <heuermh at acm.org>
Sent by: biojava-l-bounces at portal.open-bio.org
09/24/2005 12:12 AM

 
        To:     Martin Szugat <Martin.Szugat at gmx.net>
        cc:     biojava-l at biojava.org, (bcc: Mark Schreiber/GP/Novartis)
        Subject:        Re: [Biojava-l] Apache License vs. (L)GPL


Hello Martin,

I think the concern is only in the opposite direction, when an
Apache-licensed library wishes to include a GPL-licensed library as a
dependency.

As long as you adhere to the conditions of the LGPL for BioJava (include
the text of the LGPL in your distribution) and of the Apache license for
the commons libraries (include the text of the Apache licence and a
NOTICE.txt file in the distribution or a section in your README.txt with
the text "This product includes software developed by The Apache Software
Foundation (http://www.apache.org/).") then you are fine.

   michael


On Fri, 23 Sep 2005, Martin Szugat wrote:

> Hi!
>
> I'm using BioJava with my BioWeka project (www.bioweka.org). I'd like to
> create a distribution with BioWeka (GPL), BioJava (LGPL) and the Apache
> Commons libraries (Apache license) which are required by BioJava. 
However
> there seems to be an incompatibility between the GPL/LGPL and the Apache
> license:
>
> http://apache.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/18/215242&tid=117&tid=185&ti
> d=17&tid=2
>
> But the Apache foundation says the licenses are compatible:
>
> http://www.apache.org/foundation/licence-FAQ.html#GPL
>
> So I'm a little bit confused if I'm allowed to package all libraries in 
the
> same distribution. Maybe someone can clarify that. I already contacted 
the
> Apache foundation but didn't get an answer, yet.
>
> Best regards
>
> Martin
>
>
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