On Fri, 6 Jun 2008 10:26:04 -0400 "m. allan noah" <kitno455 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > no, the GPL is all about derivative works and combining code, it makes > no difference the direction: You are probably right, the closest entry in the faq that describes this situation seems to be http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLAndPlugins <cite> It depends on how the program invokes its plug-ins. If the program uses fork and exec to invoke plug-ins, then the plug-ins are separate programs, so the license for the main program makes no requirements for them. If the program dynamically links plug-ins, and they make function calls to each other and share data structures, we believe they form a single program, which must be treated as an extension of both the main program and the plug-ins. This means the plug-ins must be released under the GPL or a GPL-compatible free software license, and that the terms of the GPL must be followed when those plug-ins are distributed. If the program dynamically links plug-ins, but the communication between them is limited to invoking the `main' function of the plug-in with some options and waiting for it to return, that is a borderline case. </cite> So, for example, if a GPL backend uses a closed source "plugin" to decode the received data, that would be a borderline case. -- Best regards, Alessandro Zummo, Tower Technologies - Torino, Italy http://www.towertech.it
