On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 1:23 PM, Chris Cannam <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 > _______________________________________________
Hello, Wikipedia has interesting information about this topic, with the differents opinions available on this particular topic. The main thing it explains is that there's nothing sure about this :-/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License#Linking_and_derived_works -- Lta. _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-dev
