Licensing: Android, LGPL and the ZBar QR Code scanner [closed]

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I have integrated zbar code scanner in my Android-app in minutes (great library!), nevertheless I am thinking of replacing it with another QR code reader now. The reason is, that there is much scepticism[1][2] on the web whether LGPL is compatible with commercial Android projects.

Can someone tell me why zbar uses LGPL but nevertheless are supporting android? (the even have a android section in their support forum...)

Is there a way to make sure my app meets the license requirements?

[1] http://source.android.com/source/licenses.html

[2] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-java.html

Answer 1

Android platform project has different licensing requirements from 3rd party app developers. While it is possible to replace and reverse engineer LGPL libraries in 3rd party apps, it is not so for LGPL libraries in read-only firmware.

Key parts of Android zbar are distributed in binary .so files. As such, they are replaceable in your distributed app in terms compliant with LGPL.

For the Java adapter code (zbar.jar), make sure you're not using ProGuard or other obfuscation on it.

For reference, here's how the droidText project addresses LGPL compliance: https://code.google.com/p/droidtext/wiki/LGPLCompliance

(Standard I-am-not-a-lawyer disclaimer applies.)

Answer 2

TL/DR: always distribute zbar source together with the app and you are clear.

I'd say that it's not simple for a user to upgrade the library should they want to. Instead, to be safe, you should treat your program as statically linked with the library. (From a practical point of view, your program is sort of statically linked, anyway.)

If you do that, you have to distribute the source (or linkable object files) of the library. It must be the potentially tweaked source you used, not some generic download-link or so.

_{By the way I upvoted llato's answer too, because it got some merit, but I would not be keen on arguing that line of reasoning in front of a judge. (Not that I think zbar authors in particular would drag me there but you get the point.)}