GNL Lesser General Public License- using licensed componants for a client's website

[coachmaster]

Hello,

My brother has been helping me write some server side PHP scripting to get a contact form working for a website. He wants to use a calender he found online on it but is unsure about the license. Its licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License.

It is a website design I will charge the client for (so its commercial)
I run a business

He and I have had a look at the GNU LGPL pages and are a bit unclear if in the circumstances above I am okay to use it.

Perhaps some of you have a simular experience when building websites? I'd be grateful for any information.

kind regards

Coachmaster

[eezee319]

I believe that none of the GNU licenses prevent you from distributing a derivative work for a payment if your client is happy to pay for it.

Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU Licenses - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)

I think there are some stipulations though that you have to provide your modified source code with your application and your client is then free to distribute your work/source code as they please.

[eezee319]

And I suppose the other question is what exactly are you selling to your client? The software that is licensed under GNU terms or service of incorporating that software on their website? There are a lot of consultancies that work with open source products - they do not sell the software, but their expertise of implementing it.

[coachmaster]

Hi eezee319

I'll be selling the graphic design and website construction service (So I guess it might be considered as expertise to impliment it although I would be carrying out the implimentaion) to a local optician. (although I imagine the same GNU LGPL rules would apply to a big company)

The calender is so customers choose possible days to book an appointment and will become part of a contact form. With that in mind is it possible that this element could be considered part of the site (so the site becomes part of the software) and that would mean the whole site would have to fall under the LGPL? I wouldn't want that, nor would my client. I would however be happy for other web designers to use the calender element further.

[eezee319]

I'm not an expert on all ins and outs of GNU licenses but as I understand it is the tool (calendar with your added form functionality) that will be GPL'ed, not the end product per se. The content, the layout, the artwork of your site are yours / your clients and you do not have to distribute it under GNU licensing terms. It is really the coded functionality that is affected if it interfaces with licensed code / libraries.

Also there is no requirement for you to distribute the code if you do not want to, you can use it internally. So if you and your client do not distribute the code further, it remains with you. But if you do distribute or sell it the receiver is free to do with it what they please as long as they comply with GNU terms.

[eezee319]

It looks like LGPL is less restrictive than plain GPL. Here is text from Wikipedia:

The main difference between the GPL and the LGPL is that the latter can be linked to (in the case of a library, 'used by') a non-(L)GPLed program, and regardless of whether it is free software or proprietary software.This non-(L)GPLed program can then be distributed under any chosen terms if it is not a derivative work.

So, unless you modify the LGPLed code and just use the library, it appears you can place whatever restrictions on the resulting product.

[coachmaster]

Hi eezee319

It found it amazing that when I was searching on the net that I couldn't find anything to give further clarification to the situation in layman's terms.

I feel more comfortable using the calendar code as part of the contact form now thanks to your interpretation of the license.

thanks again

Coachmaster