I’m not 100% sure that this is the right place to ask about this. If
not, someone please point me in the right direction.
I was just wondering if there was any chance at all of changing the
terms under which SDL is licensed to allow for static linking. For
example, the OCaml libraries are distributed under the LGPL with the
following statement added:
"As a special exception to the GNU Library General Public License, you
may link, statically or dynamically, a “work that uses the Library"
with a publicly distributed version of the Library to produce an
executable file containing portions of the Library, and distribute
that executable file under terms of your choice, without any of the
additional requirements listed in clause 6 of the GNU Library General
Public License. By “a publicly distributed version of the Library”,
we mean either the unmodified Library as distributed by INRIA, or a
modified version of the Library that is distributed under the
conditions defined in clause 3 of the GNU Library General Public
License. This exception does not however invalidate any other reasons
why the executable file might be covered by the GNU Library General
Public License.”
The wxWidgets GUI library and other works are distributed under similar
terms.
The logic is that the purpose of distributing a work under the LGPL is
to fulfill two goals:
- Keep the original work itself and versions of it free
- Allow other works to link with the original work and be distributed
under other terms
Prohibiting static linking does not help goal #1 and hinders goal #2.
So, is there any chance whatsoever of a similar clause being added to
SDL’s licensing terms?
Thanks,
Mike Benfield