“An examination of the issues involved with the use of
open-source software components in closed-source
applications.”
“While the benefits of open source are becoming more widely
appreciated, closed-source software will continue to be
developed.”
“Closed-source applications can benefit from using open-source
components.”
“Concerns arise over using open-source components in
closed-source applications… A component licensed under the terms
of the GPL cannot be used in a closed-source application, but some
developers of open-source components would like to see them used in
any application, open-source or not. The Library General Public
License (LGPL, also known as the Lesser General Public License) was
developed for this situation. A component licensed under the LGPL
may be included in a closed-source application as long as users can
get the source for the component, modify it and rebuild the
application.”