{"id":"LGPL-2.1-only","title":"GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 only","reviewed_on":"2026-09-15","reviewer":"Giray Havur","text_source":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spdx/license-list-data/main/text/LGPL-2.1-only.txt","text_retrieved":true,"verdict":"created","summary":"The record models version 2.1 of the GNU Lesser General Public License as the -only reading. Its operative terms are those of version 2 of the Library GPL: the same numbered sections, the same whole-work reciprocity as a license-wide cc:ShareAlike duty, the same duties on distribute, modify and derive, and the same warranty and liability clauses. The one substantive difference is in the linking exception, where section 6 of version 2.1 adds the shared-library mechanism as an alternative way of meeting the condition.","findings":[{"rubric":3,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:permission","description":"Section 1 grants the verbatim-copy right (\"You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Library's complete source code as you receive it, in any medium\") and section 2 the right to modify and to distribute the modified work, so the record permits reproduce, distribute, modify, derive, display, present, commercial use, derivative works and modified works. Section 1 also allows a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, so dalicc:chargeDistributionFee is permitted.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"Section 8 reads: \"You may not copy, modify, sublicense, link with, or distribute the Library except as expressly provided under this License.\" dalicc:sublicense is therefore prohibited, and so is dalicc:ChangeLicense, because sections 1, 2c and 6 require the work and every work based on it to stay under this License. The sibling records GPL-2.0-only, GPL-3.0-only and LGPL-3.0-only prohibit dalicc:ChangeLicense but carry no sublicensing statement, so this record states one more prohibition than its siblings.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"minor","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"dalicc:promote is prohibited to stay with the four existing GNU records, which all carry it. The text of this license has no trademark or endorsement clause, so the prohibition is a library convention here and not text-supported. The review of GPL-2.0-only proposed removing it library-wide; the same question applies to this record.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":5,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:duty","description":"Section 2c requires that \"You must cause the whole of the work to be licensed at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License\", which is whole-work reciprocity and not file-level reciprocity, so cc:ShareAlike hangs off the odrl:Set itself, exactly as on GPL-2.0-only and LGPL-3.0-only. cc:Attribution, cc:Notice and cc:SourceCode are duties on distribute, modify and derive (sections 1, 2 and 4), and dalicc:modificationNotice on modify and derive (section 2b, \"cause the files modified to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change\").","action":"applied"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"minor","field":"dalicc:WarrantyOrLiabilityAcceptance","description":"Section 1 lets a redistributor sell its own warranty: \"You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.\" That is the clause dalicc:WarrantyOrLiabilityAcceptance is for. The existing GNU records leave it out although their texts carry the same sentence, so the family is not uniform on this field.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"minor","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"Section 6 (the linking exception: a work that uses the Library may be distributed under terms of your choice if the conditions of that section are met) and section 7 (combined libraries) carry the whole difference between this license and the GPL, and no deontic term can hold them. Both are quoted verbatim in dalicc:additionalClauses, the way LGPL-3.0-only quotes the equivalent sections 4 and 5 of version 3.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":7,"severity":"info","field":"cc:jurisdiction","description":"The text names no legal system for the grant, so cc:jurisdiction stays dalicc:worldwide and dalicc:validityType stays dalicc:perpetual. Section 12 allows the copyright holder to add a geographical distribution limitation, but that is an option the licensor may take, not a limit this license imposes.","action":"none"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"gap","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"Three clauses have no vocabulary term. Section 8 terminates the license automatically on breach (proposed term: dalicc:terminatesOnBreach, a property over the existing dalicc:terminationOnBreach concept). Section 11 forbids distribution where a patent claim would make royalty-free redistribution impossible (proposed term: dalicc:patentFreedomCondition). Section 10 forbids imposing further restrictions on the recipients (dalicc:addLimitation exists and could carry it, but no record uses it as a prohibition yet, so it is left open for the association's decision).","action":"none"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"info","field":"dalicc:orLaterVersionOption","description":"dalicc:orLaterVersionOption false records that this is the 2.1-only reading. Section 13 gives the option of a later version only where the Library itself says \"any later version\", which is what the -or-later SPDX id expresses; the library models that with this flag instead of a second record.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":9,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"The consistency check with the axioms of dg_default returned no conflicts. Share-alike is required while dalicc:ChangeLicense is prohibited and odrl:grantUse is not permitted, so the share-alike rule of the checker is not triggered.","action":"none"},{"rubric":2,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:target","description":"One odrl:AssetCollection of dct:type dcmitype:Software, following GPL-2.0-only and LGPL-3.0-only. The license speaks of a software library throughout.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":10,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"The record follows GPL-2.0-only statement for statement, plus the linking exception in dalicc:additionalClauses that LGPL-3.0-only carries for version 3. The two differences from the siblings are deliberate and are described in the rubric 4 and rubric 6 findings.","action":"none"},{"rubric":10,"severity":"info","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"Against LGPL-2.0-only the operative difference is section 6, which in version 2.1 offers five ways of meeting the condition instead of four: option b, \"Use a suitable shared library mechanism for linking with the Library\", is new, and the later options are renumbered. The preamble was rewritten and the license renamed from Library to Lesser, which changes no obligation. Both differences are inside the quoted clause, so the deontic models of the two records are identical.","action":"none"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"minor","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"dalicc:promote was prohibited and no sentence of this text supports it. The statement was the library's reading of a legal default, that a copyright licence which says nothing about endorsement grants no right to it, and it sat in 519 of 581 records as a house convention. That reading is now an adopted dalicc:DefaultRule of the core dependency graph, which supplies it to every licence that is silent about the action, so a compatibility check reaches the same answer and the record states only what the text states. Removed on 2026-09-23; see section 13 of docs/LICENSE_REVIEW.md.","action":"applied","change":"# removed\nodrl:prohibition [ a odrl:Prohibition ;\n        odrl:action dalicc:promote ] ;\n"},{"rubric":10,"severity":"major","field":"dalicc:compatibleWith","description":"Section 3 reads: \"You may opt to apply the terms of the ordinary GNU General Public License instead of this License to a given copy of the Library.\" and adds \"(If a newer version than version 2 of the ordinary GNU General Public License has appeared, then you can specify that version instead if you wish.)\" dalicc:compatibleWith names GPL-2.0-only, GPL-2.0-or-later, GPL-3.0-only, GPL-3.0-or-later.","action":"applied"}],"family":"GNU family","port_of":null,"variant_kind":"version","notes":"Modelled from the standalone text published by the Free Software Foundation. The warranty and liability clauses are sections 15 and 16 quoted verbatim, with the section numbers dropped, as on GPL-2.0-only. The deontic model is identical to LGPL-2.0-only by design: the two texts differ in the preamble, in the name and inside the quoted linking exception."}