[Zlib-devel] zlib and LZMA

[William A. Rowe, Jr.]

Mark Adler wrote:
> On Jul 15, 2006, at 10:53 PM, Peleg, Guy (VMS Engineering) wrote:
>> Any idea if ZLIB's license will be impacted?
> 
> Excellent question.  The answer is yes, it will be impacted.  Here's  
> the deal: Igor will allow commercial, closed-source use of his code,  
> but only if unmodified.  He restricts use of his code modified in  
> closed source.  You can however modify and use his code (including  
> commercial use) if you then make the modifications available open  
> source.

This sounds like LGPL yet you don't mention it.  It would be very
disappointing of zlib started shipping code that doesn't match any
of the OSS licenses.  Roll-your-own is fraught with gotchas, and
would definately slow uptake of such a release.

I'd actually be disappointed if zlib drifted away from it's bsd-style
licensing; it's certainly one of the top-three reasons for some to stay
with zlib/infozip as opposed to GPL alternatives.  But that's certainly
your call, Mark.

Bill