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SphericalKat / dart-fuzzywuzzy

A dart port of the popular fuzzywuzzy package
https://pub.dev/packages/fuzzywuzzy
GNU General Public License v2.0
42 stars 7 forks source link

GPLv2 License #3

Closed ToniTornado closed 3 years ago

ToniTornado commented 3 years ago

Can somebody explain to me what this license means for usage in my proprietary commercial Flutter project? I known there exists a "library exception" in the GPLv2. Does it apply to this package when I use it in my project? Unfortunately it is not possible for me to release the source code of the app where I plan to use this package.

Thank you!

SphericalKat commented 3 years ago

Hi, thanks for asking what's been bothering me for a long time honestly.

This GPLv2 doesn't contain any of the "linking" exception clauses, and thus you'd have to provide sources for your entire application on request if you ended up using this library.

I would've preferred not to use a GPL license for this project and instead use something permissive like MIT or Apache for the widest compatibility; however the original authors of fuzzywuzzy licensed their library under the GPLv2, and I have to honour that license since this is technically a "derivative work".

However fear not! Me and a friend are currently working on a "clean room" reimplementation that will be licensed under a permissive license and provide the same functionality.

If you have more questions, feel free to reach out.

Cheers!