If I use an lgpl licensed javascript library, do I have to release my closed source web app that is using it?
I feel like I don’t have to, so long as I don’t modify the source of the library.
I would like to use an lgpl javascript wysiwyg in a commercial closed source environment.
The closed source web app is never distributed (depending on how the definition of distribution applies to websites), and end users only have access to it.
I find the gpl and lgpl very confusing as they apply to web.
I am also confused what constitutes “distribution”.
In one plain English “translation”, the library remains available under LGPL while your main software can be whatever license you’d like.
Typically with these types of open source programs, you’re okay if you just have a “Frobnicator uses the Foo library, available under the Lesser Gnu Public License” statement in your “about” page, along with the LGPL source available in the program somewhere. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen just a link to a license, without the actual license text.
One idea might be to just email the developer of the library or the library’s mailing list and just ask what you need to do to properly license that library.
And I am not a lawyer, so nothing I’ve said is necessarily legally true, etc.