Re: [Gnash-dev] Reuse of Gnash code in Lightspark

[Robinson Tryon]

On Sat, Dec 18, 2010 at 9:19 AM, Timon Van Overveldt <address@hidden> wrote:
> ...For this, I looked at Gnash's code as a reference implementation.
>
> I've currently implemented a "scriptable plugin object", pretty much the
> same way as it is implemented in Gnash. For this I used Gnash's code as a
> reference.
> Some of the code has been copy-pasted and subsequently edited, other parts I
> have written from scratch (while still using Gnash as a reference).

IANAL, but based on what you have described it sounds possible that
your work might qualify as a derivative work of Gnash.

> The code is available at:
> https://github.com/lightspark/lightspark/tree/e-interface
> The commit in question is: e4d44ab6d42eb69c2886

Here's a direct link to the commit:
https://github.com/lightspark/lightspark/commit/e4d44ab6d42eb69c2886d1f4c0834e115ed25cf0

And I believe that this is the commit message:

"Add NPScriptObject to support scripting an LS instance. Main
structure and some code is copied from Gnash. Properties & standard
methods are supported. No ability to export properties/methods using
ExternalInterface yet."

> Lightspark is licensed under the LGPL3, while Gnash is licensed under GPL3.
> Are you guys ok with me licensing my implementation under LGPL3?
> Am I breaching the terms of the license by doing this?
> If I am, please note that this is not on purpose and that I will try to
> resolve the situation immediately.

Your work appears to have (only) LGPL headers on all of the files and
I don't see anything in the code or commit message to indicate that
Gnash is available under a less permissive license, or that this
commit may contain code under the GPL.

I agree that you should contact the copyright holder (the FSF) asap
and talk with them. It is possible that they might agree to relicense
some of the Gnash code under a license compatible with the LGPL, but
until they do so, you may be distributing someone else's GPLed code
under the LGPL.

I believe the right address to use for inquiries is address@hidden


Cheers,
-- Robinson