RE: xPLLib License Issue...

["Ian Lowe" <ianlowe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

AIUI, the .Net framework is actually LGPL rather than "pure" GPL
- certainly
we have discussed commercial implementations in the past without
difficulty.

Remember as well that the GPL does not preclude the author(s) from
releasing
the code under a different licence for another use.

John is the author (with some help from Tom) so he would have final say..
But I don't see it being a problem..

Ian.

-----Original Message-----
From: ukha_xpl@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_xpl@xxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Mal Lansell
Sent: 17 December 2005 11:39
To: ukha_xpl@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_xpl] xPLLib License Issue...

I'm currently working on a ZWave connector for xPL.  I have some ZWave
devices, and they work really well - because they are RF there are none of
the delays of X10, and they confirm their status changes (hooray!).

Unfortunately, there is no free SDK for controlling ZWave via their PC
interfaces.  IMO, this is a huge mistake, but that's how it is.  Zensys'
own ZWave SDK is very expensive, but there is a company called ControlThink
that is in the process of creating a USB interface, and that will ship with
a usable SDK.  This SDK will also work with other ZWave controllers, and
licenses will be available to download and use the SDK without needing to
buy their hardware.

The SDK is written in .NET, so I would like to use the .NET xPLLib to
handle
the xPL side of things, and here is where I run into the problem.  xPLLib
is
released under the GPL license, and as far as I can tell, that is
incompatible with the ZWave SDK license (which requires the purchase of the
SDK and therefore prevents me releasing the connector software as
freeware).

Is there a way round this?  Have I misunderstood the GPL license?  Or am I
going to have to not use the xPLLib - which would seriously impede my
ability to release this useful connector service?

Regards

Mal