GNU Lesser General Public License

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The GNU Lesser General Public License is an FSF approved Free Software license designed as a compromise between the GNU General Public License and simple permissive licenses such as the BSD license and the MIT License. It was written in 2000 by Richard Stallman and Eben Moglen.

It places a copyleft restriction on individual source code files but does not copyleft the program as a whole provided you use "a suitable shared library mechanism for linking" and follow certain other restrictions. The license is only useful for software libraries; it was once called the GNU Library General Public License.

The main difference between the GPL and the LGPL is that the latter can be linked to a non-(L)GPLed software program. Another major difference is that derivative works (which are not GPLed) must be software libraries.

Another interesting and little-known feature of the LGPL is that you can convert any LGPL'd piece of software into a GPL'd piece of software (See section 3 of the license). This is useful if you want to create a version of the code that proprietary software companies cannot use in non-free products.

External link

• Text of the LGPL
• "Why you shouldn't use the Library GPL for your next library" by Richard Stallman