Enhancement: LGPL?

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I'm no legal scholar, but I'm told that, in general, I can't use any GPL
code but might be able to use LGPL.  

I create RIA web UI's on different web application projects.  It would be
nice to be able to link to dragtable.js on the web-page front end without
giving a heart attack to all the application server code developers, client
lawyers, etc..  

I think the reasoning is that if one little teensy piece of the web UI has
a link to one little GPL js file, then every single bit of software written
in JS or JAVA on client or server needs to be opened up as GPL.  

Whether or not that's true (leave that to the lawyers), that's the
perception and it effectively precludes me from using dragtable.js for
anything but my "hobby" websites.

P.S. As a UI guy, no matter what positive approaches I may have toward open
source for the UI component, I'm still often only one small part of a much
larger enterprise.

What do you think?

Original issue reported on code.google.com by jfk...@gmail.com on 22 Jul 2009 at 5:06

[GoogleCodeExporter]

P.S. I see a lot of use of the MIT license, which seems less restrictive.  
Example:
prototype.js

Original comment by jfk...@gmail.com on 22 Jul 2009 at 5:09

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Why do you say that dragtable is GPL?

On the project home page: "Code license: MIT License"
On dragtable.js:18: "Licensed under the MIT license."

If there's an inconsistency somewhere, I'll need to fix it. But I don't see any.

Original comment by danvdk on 22 Jul 2009 at 5:13

• Changed state: Invalid

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Wow, that was quick.  Hi Dan.  Very nice work here!

I found the following in v1.0 js source at http://www.danvk.org/wp/dragtable/ 
...

Notice the reference at the bottom to Mike Hall's copyright and the terms at
www.brainjar.com which specifically reference BSD.

/*
  dragtable v1.0
  June 26, 2008
  Dan Vanderkam, http://danvk.org/dragtable/
                 http://code.google.com/p/dragtable/

  Instructions:
    - Download this file
    - Add <script src="dragtable.js"></script> to your HTML.
    - Add class="draggable" to any table you might like to reorder.
    - Drag the headers around to reorder them.

  This is code was based on:
    - Stuart Langridge's SortTable (kryogenix.org/code/browser/sorttable)
    - Mike Hall's draggable class (http://www.brainjar.com/dhtml/drag/)
    - A discussion of permuting table columns on comp.lang.javascript

  Licensed under the MIT license.
 */

// Here's the notice from Mike Hall's draggable script:
//*****************************************************************************
// Do not remove this notice.
//
// Copyright 2001 by Mike Hall.
// See http://www.brainjar.com for terms of use.
//*****************************************************************************

Original comment by jfk...@gmail.com on 22 Jul 2009 at 5:31

[GoogleCodeExporter]

And on http://www.brainjar.com/terms.asp, it says:

Unless otherwise specified, all programming code on the site may be used,
redistributed and/or modified under the terms of the GNU General Public License 
as
published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License or 
(at
your option) any later version.

I'm not sure if the "any later version" clause helps us here. Really, the 
correct
solution is to get rid of this code. It's some of the ugliest in dragtable: it 
was
written in 2001 and does explicit browser sniffing. If you know of any MIT 
license
DOM dragging libraries, I'd be happy to plug one of those in. Otherwise, I 
guess I
(or another contributor) will have to re-write this code.

Original comment by danvdk on 22 Jul 2009 at 5:46

• Changed state: Accepted

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I'm really not smart enough to offer any appropriate dragging library 
alternative. 
But I will say that I've used the following before to "make things draggable":

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex11/domdrag/index.htm

I'm also not smart enough to interpret DynamicDrive's terms of use to say 
whether
it's MIT License compatible:

http://dynamicdrive.com/notice.htm

So, if you've gotten this far reading a post that begins "I'm really not smart
enough", then I can't help you -- wish I could.  ;-)

Original comment by jfk...@gmail.com on 22 Jul 2009 at 9:12

[GoogleCodeExporter]

My (non-lawyerly) reading of the DynamicDrive license is that it is not 
compatible
with either the MIT license or LGPL.  The "or later" clause in the brainjar.com
license doesn't help because GPL v3 is more restrictive than GPL v2.

Another option besides rewriting would be to ask Mike Hall/Brainjar for a 
license
exception or differently licensed version.  Not sure what other sources to 
suggest
for draggable implementations.

The request for LGPL may be an enhancement request, but there's a bug here too 
- the
current license is misstated. The code, as currently distributed, is GPL v2.

Original comment by tfmorris on 28 Apr 2010 at 9:18