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I would like to use a library that is dual licensed: library is licensed to you under your choice of the Academic Free License version 2.1, or the GNU General Public License version 2 (or, at your option any later version).

My understanding is that I can chose to use the library under the AFL and just by removing the GPL license text one must fulfil only the AFL license conditions.

Is this correct ? If not what are the best practices in this case ?

(I am asking about this specific case as when a library has a dual license — open source / commercial it's easier to distinguish)

Edit: License Text : https://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/COPYING

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  • Can you provide more details on the actual notice that exists in code? You are likely referring to some GNOME, but please specific.
    – Philippe Ombredanne
    Commented Mar 31, 2017 at 2:10
  • @PhilippeOmbredanne dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/COPYING
    – ossx
    Commented Mar 31, 2017 at 7:38

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I would double check there aren't parts of the code licensed under GPL and other parts licensed under the AFL. Based on the FAQ (https://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-faq.html), I would say you indeed have the option to pick one of the two licenses for the entire library.

what are the best practices in this case ?

If you want to be extra careful, I would remove references to the license that you don't want from ALL files in the dbus source. Most source files should have a copyright notice in block comment at the top of the file. An example: https://cgit.freedesktop.org/dbus/dbus/tree/bus/activation-helper.c. If you want to use the AFL license, remove the GPL stuff from this comment header.

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