[geos-devel] spatialite on iOS/Android

[Greg Troxel]

Hans-Georg Haberl <haberl.george at gmail.com> writes:

> I'm a developer working on UWP, Android and iOS apps using the Xamarin
> framework and Entity Framework Core.
> I'm working on building spatialite for Android, which depends on the geos
> library.
> As far as I can tell LGPL is problematic for the Android and Apples App
> Store so I was wondering if there is a way to license it in a way that
> allows to create Android and IOS Applications without getting a headache
> because there are no clear answers if this is allowed or not (Maybe add the
> possibility that you can change the licence to i.e. MPL as long as it's put
> on the Apple or Android Stores,...).

I would suggest that you move from "as far as I can tell" to clear
reasoning based on reading the terms and legal advice.

You say "Android App Store".  I use f-droid, which is an android app
store, and it is full of code with LPGL and GPL :-) But seriously, if
you mean "Google Play", then you should say that.  There are
applications on Google Play with GPL, and I have never heard claims that
GPL or LGPL licenses are prohibited.

As for iOS, perhaps you should ask Apple to change their terms.  This is
not a minor issue of license compatibility; it is a fundamental clash
between their terms and Free Software principles.

This question has come up before, and based on that discussion, it seems
highly unlikely that there would be a license change.

> I've been wondering if it's ok to just share a source of the app somewhere
> but it seems all in all still very sketchy and questionable if this will
> hold up in court if anyone ever complains (I'm working for a very small
> company with only 3 full time developers and we've been sued several times
> for no reason at all other than trying to hamper our company so they can
> get our customers,... very questionable strategy since we've always played
> fair)

I am not following your comments, but it sounds like you are in need of
legal advice, which you won't get here.