Does translating a library into another language make it a “derivative work” for the purposes of GPL/LGPL? [closed]

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I am currently developing an iPhone application where I would like to use some existing code which is published under the LGPL. Because of the nature of Apple’s App Store the application would not be open source and I will probably charge an amount for it (either $0.99 or $1.99) in order to cover the expanses for publishing in the store. I have studied the LGPL and I know that it allows use of code for proprietary software if you are using it as a library. However, the code in question is written in JavaScript so I would need to convert it into Objective-C, which I believe would make it considered as “derivative work” and I guess that requires that it must be open-sourced (please correct me if I am wrong). So my question is if translating a library into another language makes it “derivative work”, and if so is it enough to open-source just the library, or must the entire application using it be published under LGPL as well?

I also have a sub-question. There exists a previous version of the library which has already been translated into several languages, including Objective-C. However, they were written while the library was released under GPL (which prohibits using it in closed-source software). In the mean time the license was changed to LGPL (for the original JavaScript version), but does this affect the translated versions or are they still pure GPL?

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задан nielsbot 28 August 2012 в 19:19

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Does translating a library into another language make it a “derivative work” for the purposes of GPL/LGPL? [closed]

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