[ODE] Geist3D, ODE and Open-source

[Adam D. Moss]

jstier at cs.uvic.ca wrote:
> Quoting "Adam D. Moss" <adam at gimp.org>:
>> You know incorrectly then... :)  ODE is LGPL/BSD; your
>> choice as to which.  LGPL (LICENSE.TXT) is extremely unlike
>> 'do what you want' which is why it's 23K of lawyer-speak.  The
>> BSD license (LICENSE-BSD.TXT) is exceedingly more liberal and
>> open to relicensing, as well as brief and understandable by
>> laymen.
>
> I always thought that LGPL is less restrictive and more "do what you want"
> than GPL.

It is a little -- but we weren't comparing with the GPL.
n.b. it's still far from "do what you want" - you should
read it!

 > Can some make a commercial product with ODE ? Would that product use
> ODE under the BSD or LGPL license ?

It can use either depending on its intended distribution and
development models, but most likely the BSD license.  Note
that ODE's dual-license is redundant since the (common variant
of the) BSD license can trivially transmute one-way to the
less-permissive LGPL or GPL (or many other licenses), and the
LGPL option is there simply to make the options clearer.

>> You may adopt ODE under its BSD license and it will then
>> place little-or-no constraint on your own license choice,
>> which thus isn't really a topic for discussion here.
>> Personally I try to 'err on the side of liberal' when
>> choosing licenses for free stuff.
> 
> I have decided to release Geis3D under GPL just like Blender. The two
> applications are very close in spirit.  I would appreciate your opinion about
> the GPL. Would it work with the BSD liscense of ODE ? 

The GPL governs redistribution; if your overall source distribution
is GPL-licensed then the least-permissive GPL would trump it unless
you specified otherwise, but they are not otherwise incompatible.
You're allowed to stipulate that the ODE section of your source
distribution remains BSD, LGPL or dual-licensed if you wish.
If you're not actually distributing the ODE source with your
application then your application's license does not affect
your users' license to redistribute or use ODE.  Conversely,
whether or not you integrate and distribute ODE in some form,
your own app's choice of license is not affected thanks to
ODE's BSD license option, which in short only stipulates that
you do not hold ODE's authors liable for anything, that
you maintain their copyright notice, and some other trivia
(i.e. read it).

Note that I am not a lawyer and this does not constitute legal
advice.  If I were a lawyer than this advice might be more
accurate and you'd be getting my bill soon. :)

--adam