What are my obligations when using libcurl in my commercial apps?
Next to none. All you need to adhere to is the MIT-style license (stated in the COPYING file) which basically says you have to include the copyright notice in “all copies” and that you may not use the copyright holder’s name when promoting your software. You do not have to release any of your source code. You do not have to reveal or make public any changes to the libcurl source code. You do not have to reveal or make public that you are using libcurl within your app. As can be seen here: http://curl.haxx.se/docs/companies.html and elsewhere, more and more companies are discovering the power of libcurl and take advantage of it even in commercial environments.