On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 12:13 PM, Victor Lazzarini <[email protected]> wrote: > A simple question: can GPL plugins be loaded into non-free hosts?
First off -- you can _do_ anything you like with a GPL plugin, the question is whether you could legally redistribute it. Beyond that, I don't think there is a single answer to this -- I think in practice it would depend on whether the one thing (plugin or host) would be seen by the reasonable person to be a derivative work of the other. If the plugin only worked with a single host, or the plugin was necessary in order to use the host, then it might be. If it used a well-defined API supported by multiple hosts, perhaps predating either of the host or plugin in question, then it probably wouldn't. As a concrete example I think a GPL VST plugin would be perfectly fine, provided of course that it used none of Steinberg's SDK code. There are GPL'd VST hosts out there, so clearly the plugin does not depend on a non-free host and can be happily distributed under the GPL. What you choose to do with it once you've received it is up to you -- the GPL only covers distribution -- so yes, I would think you could indeed make, distribute, and use such a plugin. Chris _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-dev
