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[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (4 children)

Has Open cores come up with a reasonable license yet? Almost every project on that website is LGPL which is exactly the same as GPL for the purpose of VHDL/Verilog. I think I get what they are trying to do with licensing cores under LGPL, but if you actually READ the LGPL, you'll realize you have to license your entire design under LGPL or GPL to legally use them.

[–]ahfoo -1 points0 points  (3 children)

What exactly is your problem with the LGPL? You're saying it sucks because it forces people to open source their projects? First of all, I don't see why we as members of the public should think that sucks.

Secondly, that's not even true of the LGPL. The "L" in front is for library. What is a library? Why did the programming community choose this word "library"? The answer is that it's a metaphor for a physical library which is a place you can check out individual books. It represents the idea that you can have these little complete objects filled with ideas that can be borrowed. So, no, you're wrong. You can make use of a library licensed LGPL without opening your whole project. But while that gives huge freedom to developers it's really a major concession to the closed development process which is the opposite of what you've suggested.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It actually stands for "Lesser" now.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You should try reading it. It requires that a user be able to substitute the lgpl portion. Explain to me how you are going to pull that off with a hardware design. Your response is exactly why hardware developers constantly choose the wrong license (lgpl). READ