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The LGPLv3 license text states:

  1. e) Provide Installation Information, but only if you would otherwise be required to provide such information under section 6 of the GNU GPL, and only to the extent that such information is necessary to install and execute a modified version of the Combined Work produced by recombining or relinking the Application with a modified version of the Linked Version.

What does the bolded portion mean? Does it mean that providing installation information is only required if licensed under the GPLv3?

So, if a proprietary software links to LGPLv3-licensed library, it does not have to provide installation information?

Does this mean that LGPLv3 is not against tivoization, unless licensed under GPLv3 too (by viral effects)?

Embedded device makers who use secure boot for security or safety reasons, usually avoid using any software licensed under GPLv3 or LGPLv3 or AGPLv3, in order to avoid legal issues related to secure boot.

ruben2020
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  • Tivoization is really just a made up, but well known word, the term is "hardware protection". The idea is "do what you want with software, but produce your own hardware" ;-) – Top-Master Nov 18 '23 at 11:02
  • @Top-Master Actually the proper term for tivoization should be Secure Boot or Authenticated Boot. – ruben2020 Nov 18 '23 at 12:10
  • I like "Secure Boot" more, because "Authenticated" is too technical, but because "boot" is technical as well, ppl may understand "hardware secured software" better (also, the "boot" usually is a software itself, but harder to overwrite). – Top-Master Nov 18 '23 at 12:19

1 Answers1

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The LGPLv3 license is an extension of the GPLv3 license that grants certain additional permissions (like using the code together with proprietary, undisclosed code).

The clause 4e you quoted just reiterates that if you are in a situation where the base GPL license requires that you provide Installation Information, then the LGPL license also requires that you provide that Installation Information.

The situation where Installation Information needs to be provided is when the software is conveyed in, or with, or specifically for use in, a User Product.

Bart van Ingen Schenau
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    OK. I read this statement which means that anti-Tivoization is still included in LGPLv3: "This version of the GNU Lesser General Public License incorporates the terms and conditions of version 3 of the GNU General Public License, supplemented by the additional permissions listed below." – ruben2020 Apr 20 '22 at 07:38
  • Yes, licenses learned inheritance, which leaves less space for mistakes, but what about LGPL v2.1 - does that like GPLv2 allow hardware-protection (A.K.A. tivoization)??? – Top-Master Nov 18 '23 at 11:03