Robin2:
bperrybap:
My understanding is that the overall intent of all the LGPL/GPL licenses is to always give
the end user the ability to update or alter the open source modules.I have never thought the intent of the licensing has anything to do with giving the end user (specifically) the ability to do anything.
The LGPL/GPL licenses are all about giving and ensuring end user rights.
That is the "free" as in "freedom" part of the license.
The licenses preserve the end users rights to modify and change the open source components.
As an example,
have a close read of LGPL 2.1 section 6a which will come into play for an embedded f/w image.
if the work is an executable linked with the Library, with the complete machine-readable "work that uses the Library", as object code and/or source code, so that the user can modify the Library and then relink to produce a modified executable containing the modified Library.
The intent of that is to allow users to be able to modify and/or update the open source portions of the code
should they choose to do so, even they are part of a larger work that contains closed source modules.
That is why if you go to say Samsung's web site you will find full tar images of their Android firmware releases
that contain all the compiled objects of their proprietary source modules and build scripts/makefiles s to re-build
the firmware.
The same is true for many embedded product manufactures.
--- bill