David linked above to https://download.racket-lang.org/license.html, where the Racket maintainers (who are not lawyers, and neither am I) explain their interpretation of how "linking" in the LGPL applies to Racket. I think it's worth copying here for the record:
Since the LGPL license that Racket uses was originally designed for C > programs, parts of it require some interpretation to apply to Racket in > detail. The following is how the Racket maintainers interpret the license. > > First, if you distribute your Racket application in source form or as > compiled bytecode files, the Racket license does not restrict you at all. > > Second, if you distribute your Racket application as compiled binary > generated by raco exe, there are no requirements placed on the licensing of > your software. However, the LGPL requires that you make it possible to > re-link your software with modified versions of Racket. This means, > basically, that you need to provide the compiled bytecode files used to > produce the compiled binary, if requested by someone who got your software > from you. Note that this does not mean that your software has to be made > open source, nor do you have to give the source code to anyone, nor do you > have to make the compiled bytecode files available to the public or let > other people redistribute them. Furthermore, this is not revealing any more > of your source code than the raco exe format, since the bytecode is > embedded in an extractable way in the resulting executable. > I would add the observation that the word "easily" is subjective, and doesn't appear in the LGPL anyway, but I don't think this process for Racket is objectively more difficult than replacing a library for a C program. The process for C might be more familiar, but that's only because Racket is still in the process of conquering the world :) -Philip On Mon, Sep 24, 2018 at 2:18 PM <er...@snafu.de> wrote: > Are you sure that's a wise choice of license? > > Racket does not dynamically link to Racket libraries when applications are > deployed as compiled executables - as far as I can see, the standard module > system does not link dynamically in the sense required by the LGPL(*). > Therefore, LGPL doesn't allow anyone to distribute his or her Racket > application as compiled executable without making the source code available > on request, too, whenever that source code was made with an LGPL Racket > library. So for users of your library, LGPL is pretty much equivalent to > GPL. They have to provide the source code, or the program has to load the > library with dynamic require at runtime, if that's possible at all. > > (*)=the user must be able to easily update the library that the executable > uses, e.g. by linking to another dynamic library > > ----- Ursprüngliche Nachricht ----- > Von: > "Neil Van Dyke" <n...@neilvandyke.org> > > An: > "Stephen De Gabrielle" <spdegabrie...@gmail.com>, "Racket Users" < > us...@racket-lang.org> > Cc: > > Gesendet: > Mon, 24 Sep 2018 13:06:15 -0400 > Betreff: > Re: [racket-users] Licence guidance > > > What's seemed to work over many years for my Racket open source packages > (a couple of which are useful things that would be expensive to rewrite) > is LGPL (initially version 2.x, but lately version 3), plus a statement > to contact me about other possible licenses. > > My thinking was, LGPL suggests the idea of sharing in the same spirit, > but has very modest limitations that aren't a barrier to most commercial > use. At the same time, if someone wanted to make commercial > inconsistent with even those modest limitations (e.g., make the package > a closed network service), that was OK, but I'd want some of that money, > in lieu of common benefit warm-fuzzies. > > I don't recall ever being contacted about a different license other than > LGPL. Some of my Racket packages are used by an important large > closed-source production server system, for example, without any > different license. (Though, at one point, someone who wanted to > incorporate my CSV library into an open source something initially > seemed to be interested in an older version that was LGPLv2 rather than > v3, perhaps for compatibility with their license at the time, but then > they quickly straightened that out somehow.) > > That said, I don't know whether LGPLv3 is the best default license for > third-party Racket packages. Maybe that should be revisited. > > Today, Racket hasn't yet taken off commercially nearly as much as it > might've,[1] and maybe the biggest concern with the licenses of open > source Racket packages shared altruistically is that we not > inadvertently lock out some positive later effort (because, e.g., we > didn't leave a permissive enough license before we went to live off-grid > on a sunny beach with our Racketeering plunder). > > I'm not saying that licenses shouldn't be totally permissive, though, or > we'd just release everything to the public domain. Racket is pretty > neat, and, for example, there's still an icky element or two in industry > that have been known to sabotage projects, and licenses can offer some > defense. I think there's little danger of Racket ever being a threat or > underhanded opportunity to anyone -- but, with all the students around, > we should try to serve example of good open source licensing, in the > best spirit of engineering and goodwill. > > [1] It's not too late. :) https://www.neilvandyke.org/racket-money/ > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Racket Users" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to racket-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Racket Users" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to racket-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Racket Users" group. 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