License issues with libblkid1

[Mishari Alarfaj]

Sorry, I should have clarified.  My concern was with blkid.h header file
distributed under the libblkid-dev package (in trusty).  Looking into the
header file, it is distributed under the LGPL license.  After downloading
the source however, we can see that it contains an odd 'version.c' file
which is distributed under GPL (contrary to the rest of the source files
which are labeled as LGPL).  I have to admit I'm not an expert in software
licensing laws, but I was under the impression that any library derived
from GPL source would inherit the GPL and the headers had to reflect it as
such?

On Fri, Jul 10, 2015 at 6:17 PM, Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre <
mathieu.tl at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On Fri, Jul 10, 2015 at 10:49 AM, Mishari Alarfaj <
> malarfaj at bluebelttech.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Hi.  I just wanted to mention that libblkid1 is currently distributed via
>> ubuntu 14.04 as an LGPL libarary.  However, when viewing the source, a
>> file: version.c is distributed as GPL.  I believe this either breaks the
>> LGPL licensing, and the license either needs to be updated or the version.c
>> file (which appears to be irrelevant) needs to be removed.  Thanks for your
>> time
>>
>
> A quick look at the debian/copyright file shows that it is listed (though
> not very clearly, I must admit) as having multiple different source files
> with different licenses; GPL-2+ is listed [1]. This would include version.c
> as under the GPL. (I don't know whether this is correct or not, if it
> should be GPL-2+ or just GPL-2).
>
> The debian/copyright file has been updated in later releases to more
> clearly list the copyright for each source file. The first stanza is a
> catch-all (*) which includes any file not explicitly listed later in the
> file [2].
>
> This make me feel like while util-linux might benefit a good look w.r.t
> licensing compliance, it's likely already fine (that also depends on local
> copyright law...)
>
> Do you have specific concerns about that file or about the general
> licensing for util-linux? Are there issues specific to your location I'm
> not aware of?
>
> [1]
> http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/trusty/util-linux/trusty/view/head:/debian/copyright
> [2]
> http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/wily/util-linux/wily/view/head:/debian/copyright
>
> Regards,
>
> / Matt
>



-- 
-- 
Mishari Alarfaj
Software Development Engineer
Blue Belt Technologies Inc.
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