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SDL Development
1

Hi James,

Are there any reasons why you have to ask Sam and can’t use the
preferred method of posting to the list?

Maybe. Well, maybe someone else can answer this then:

"Hi,

Congratulations for this great software.

I’m Guilherme C. Hazan, lead developer of an open source virtual machine for
PDAs. Pierre, which belongs to our team, is porting our vm to SDL. It is
running quite well for now.

But we have a licensing problem. SuperWaba currently is LGPL, and the next
version, which will include the SDL VM, will have two licenses: LGPL and
GPL. Mainly, we would like to make the VM that runs over SDL as GPL.

As i understand the LGPL license (which is also used for SuperWaba), it
allows you to change the software that uses it to another license. For
example, a game that is created using the SuperWaba class library and that
requires the SuperWaba VM to run can change its license, but can’t change
SuperWaba’s one. So, a game can be even closed-source, while SuperWaba is
kept LGPL.

In the same way, since SDL is LGPL and SuperWaba runs on top of it, the LGPL
grant us the right to change the license of SuperWaba to whatever we want,
from closed-source to GPL.

In other words, a Game running on top of SuperWaba is equivalent to
SuperWaba running on top of SDL; so the licence allow us to use GPL instead
of LGPL.

Am I right?

Best Regards

  Guilherme Campos Hazan (guich)
  SuperWaba Lead Developer
  http://www.superwaba.com

"

2

And this was my followup of the last e-mail, sent two days after (one month
ago):

"Hi,

I had sent you an e-mail regarding licensing problems (LGPL -> GPL), but i
read in the LGPL license that we can change the license of a program that is
LGPL to GPL if we want.

Anyway, we’re now adopting the SDL for our products and we will be porting
it to the Palm OS platform in the future. We would like to create a straight
partnership with you, and we will also make a donation to your project in
the next 3 months, after we release our SuperWaba SDL VM.

Note that SuperWaba is also LGPL, and that we’re a team of owners and
developers, as you are. We’re not rich as Micro$oft, but we’re working hard
to make our project grow. :slight_smile:

We have 4 offices that represents SuperWaba: Brazil (the headquarter), USA
(California), France and Germany. Since you’re also at Germany, maybe you
can get in touch with Daniel Tauschke and talk about our project and common
goals."

guich

3

Hi James,

Are there any reasons why you have to ask Sam and can’t use the
preferred method of posting to the list?

Maybe. Well, maybe someone else can answer this then:

"Hi,

Congratulations for this great software.

I’m Guilherme C. Hazan, lead developer of an open source virtual
machine for
PDAs. Pierre, which belongs to our team, is porting our vm to SDL. It
is
running quite well for now.

But we have a licensing problem. SuperWaba currently is LGPL, and the
next
version, which will include the SDL VM, will have two licenses: LGPL
and
GPL. Mainly, we would like to make the VM that runs over SDL as GPL.

As i understand the LGPL license (which is also used for SuperWaba), it
allows you to change the software that uses it to another license. For
example, a game that is created using the SuperWaba class library and
that
requires the SuperWaba VM to run can change its license, but can’t
change
SuperWaba’s one. So, a game can be even closed-source, while SuperWaba
is
kept LGPL.

In the same way, since SDL is LGPL and SuperWaba runs on top of it,
the LGPL
grant us the right to change the license of SuperWaba to whatever we
want,
from closed-source to GPL.

In other words, a Game running on top of SuperWaba is equivalent to
SuperWaba running on top of SDL; so the licence allow us to use GPL
instead
of LGPL.

Am I right?

Everything you said here is correct - albeit a bit long winded.

For more clarification, don’t say ‘change’ license where you can say
’use’ license. For example where you said, “a game that is created
using the SuperWaba class library and that requires the SuperWaba VM to
run can change its license,” it would be more clear to say, “a game
that is created using the SuperWaba class library and that requires the
SuperWaba VM to run can use another license.”

For complete clarity:

If SuperWaba class library is GNU GPL, then…
- All software based on the class library must be GNU GPL or
equivalent.
- No software based on the class library can be closed source.
- Games can still charge for a finished product: compiled binary,
and media such as images and sounds - a necessary part of games.
- Games cannot charge for their source code. Using the source code,
anyone can add their own images and sounds, and build the source code
from scratch, to create a finished product.

If SuperWaba class library is GNU LGPL, then…
- All software based on the class library can be any license that
doesn’t subvert the distribution fo SuperWaba (they can use any license
they want most of the time.)
- All software based on the class library can be closed source.
- Game companies must provide object code that is ready to be
linked to any other version of the SDL library. This is an important
part of the LGPL, that allows a learned user to port software to
another platform, even if the company doesn’t want to spend the
resources to do so.

Hope that helps.

Best Regards

  Guilherme Campos Hazan (guich)
  SuperWaba Lead Developer
  http://www.superwaba.com

"

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  • Donny VisznekiOn Jul 27, 2004, at 1:52 PM, Guilherme Campos Hazan wrote: