[Lazarus] Ide add-ons licensing issue

[Reinier Olislagers]

On 23-2-2013 17:10, Martin wrote:
> All info from memory: double check yourself.
> 
> Also, I am no lawyer, and the info below is my opinion (my understanding
> of the licensing situation)
> 
> On 23/02/2013 15:50, Giuliano Colla wrote:
>> It's my company policy to provide our customers the source code of the
>> applications, with a licensing condition which specify that the source
>> code is provided only for customer convenience and reference.
>>
>> In some special cases, the customer can make small himself
>> modifications, with our authorization, and the license is modified
>> accordingly.
>> In those cases the customer is also informed of the Lazarus and fpc
>> version used for the original compilation, to avoid any compatibility
>> problem.
>>
>> It's clear to me that our source code carries our license, while
>> Lazarus and fpc come with GPL license.
> Actually:
> 
> LCL, RTL, FCL, LazUtils : LGPL + Linknig exception
> 
> IDE: GPL
> 
> Packages: various (e.g. SynEdit: MPL or GPL)
> 
>>
>> But what if we have some packages, which are not only run-time, but
>> also design-time, and which we must deploy in order to make our
>> customer able to recompile the program?
>>
>> They're not of general interest, so it doesn't make sense to
>> contribute them to the Lazarus community (with one of them I tried,
>> but it was rejected, as too specific). They're just in our hands, and
>> they must be added to Lazarus IDE just for our applications.
>>
>> Common sense tells me that they should GPL'd too, but I'd like to be
>> comforted by a knowledgeable opinion.
> 
> Depends on what  your package depends on.
> 
> Most packages that integrate into the IDE use IdeIntf (and LCL, FCL ,ect).
> 
> IdeIntf is also LGPL.
> 
> If so, your package can be any license you like.
> 
> At least if you distribute it stand alone
> 
> However if you BUNDLE it with the IDE it may differ, because then it
> becomes part of a bundle containing GPL stuff.
> 
Agreed with everything Martin said, except I'm not sure about the
bundling. AFAIK/AFAIR, you may perfectly legally distribute Lazarus
exe+(a link to the) source code etc while adding your own other licensed
programs.
Linking in GPL code is a different story though.

See e.g.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10305866/okay-to-distribute-gpl-program-with-commercial-product-in-the-same-installer