[ODE] understanding ODE LGPL implications

[Jens Thiele]

first of all i am no license/legal expert.
So this is my personal opinion and no legal advice.

Joe Graham wrote:
> Hello,
> I am trying to make sense of the LGPL in a commercial game project I am
> involved with.  Supposing we use ODE (a fine choice indeed!) for our physics
> engine what would this mean under the LGPL in the following situations on a
> windows client platform.
> a. ODE resides in a DLL named "ode.dll"
> b. ODE is statically compiled in the game ".exe" file.
> 
> Issues with a:
> Does this mean that I merely have to include the ODE copyright and a link to
> the LGPL and possibly a link to download ODE sources?
> My concern with this approach is that someone using the game could then
> replace ode.dll with their own DLL making them invulnerable to the physics
> laws set forth in the game.
you can use a LGPL library in a closed source (&commercial) program but 
the idea
is to keep the library open source anyway and to enable the user to fix 
bugs in the
library / update the library => the user can replace the library in the 
way you describe
it, too - but of course this could always be done even if the program is 
statically linked and provided without the source - it is just more 
difficult.


> 
> Issues with b:
> Assuming I statically link the ODE library into the final .exe file.  Then
> would I be under the realm of "derivative work"?  Does this mean I will have
> to release the source code to my game?
yes - i think if you only provide statically linked binaries

> 
> Sorry all this legalese is just too confusing and sadly the LGPL is the most
> confusing since it has so many definitions and exclusive conditions.
> 
> Thanks for your help
> -joe
> 
of course you can always contact the copyright holder(s) for a special 
license
agreement - in this case Russell L. Smith.