Re: [LAD] GPL and plugins

On Mon, 21 Jun 2010, Victor Lazzarini wrote:

> A simple question: can GPL plugins be loaded into non-free hosts?
> This may appear a stupid question, but given the fact that non-free code
> can't link to GPL binaries, what is the story with dynamic modules?

This was discussed last year on this list, so it would be
worthwhile searching the archives. (Yes, I know that
searching LAD takes perseverence. :-))

According to the FSF,[1] the answer is no because it's
dynamic linking. BTW, I'm pretty sure their answer is
more black-and-white today than it was last year.

However, isn't this the whole point of using plugins?? To
allow this sort of thing? So, I think the FSF's opinion is
still up for debate. In addition, I doubt most plugin
authors will get upset with someone doing this.

Things get less cloudy if the plugin author(s) give special
permission for this (see, for example [2]).

Chris is also right: This is not an end-user issue. This
is a host author, plugin author, and software distributor
issue.

-gabriel

[1] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#NFUseGPLPlugins
[2] http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/licensing.html
     Down toward the end where it mentions Totem's exception
     for hosts, and again waaaay at the end where it mentions
     the FSF.

_______________________________________________
Linux-audio-dev mailing list
Linux-audio-dev@email-addr-hidden
http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-dev
Received on Mon Jun 21 16:15:05 2010