Can I use CodeSynthesis XSD (C++/Tree mapping) together with a GPLv3-licensed library?

Posted by Erik Sjölund on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Erik Sjölund
Published on 2012-07-18T16:10:38Z Indexed on 2012/09/17 9:51 UTC
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Is it possible to write an open source project that uses generated code from CodeSynthesis XSD (C++/Tree) and then link it to a third-party library that is licensed under the GPL version 3?

Some background information: CodeSynthesis XSD is licensed under the GPL version 2 but with an extra FLOSS exception (http://www.codesynthesis.com/projects/xsd/FLOSSE).

C++ source code generated from CodeSynthesis XSD (C++/Tree) needs to be linked against Xerces (http://xerces.apache.org/xerces-c/) that is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

Update

I posted a similar question on the xsd-users mailing list two years ago but I didn't fully understand the answers.

In that email thread, I wrote:

I think it is the GPL version 3 software that doesn't allow itself be linked to software that can't be "relicensed" to GPL version 3 ( for instance GPL version 2 software ). That would also include XSD as the FLOSS exception doesn't give permission to "relicense" XSD to GPL version 3.

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