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Nucondria

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Licensing Questions
« on: August 07, 2022, 10:19:54 pm »
I apologise if this has been asked before, but i was not able to find this exact question, or an answer in general.

I am still new so do forgive my stupidity.

1.
The license of SFML itsself is clear to me, but those of the external libraries used by SFML confuse me.
How exactly do i have to include them? Or is referencing the libraries and the according license enough?

2.
Assuming my product is an end product, what licenses am i legally allowed to use for it?
Are there incompatibilities with the ones of the external libraries used by SFML?
Can i keep my product closed source?

I am at a loss here, so a detailed answer of what i should include where and why would be appreciated!


eXpl0it3r

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Re: Licensing Questions
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2022, 03:20:57 pm »
You need to check each license separately to figure out the exact requirements.

The most critical one is OpenAL Soft, when using the audio module, as it's licensed LGPL and puts some constraint on how you can distribute the binary. SFML by default enforces shared linking (e.g. a DLL). Otherwise everyone would need to provide their source code: https://tldrlegal.com/license/gnu-lesser-general-public-license-v2.1-(lgpl-2.1)

Quote
If the software is statically linked (i.e. compiled into) your work, you must release object code or source code such that the user can modify the library. If otherwise (dynamically linked), you must make the source for the library available.

I suggest to check out the rest of the dependencies on TLDRLegal and check if it requires the inclusion of the license and/or copyright.

SFML is generally built on libraries with permissive licenses, as such it should be no problem to use it in a closed source product.
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