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Re: Plugins, libraries, licenses and Debian



On Sat, Dec 06, 2003 at 03:50:50AM +0100, M?ns Rullg?rd wrote:
> Walter Landry <wlandry@ucsd.edu> writes:
> 
> >> I am working on a piece of free software that makes extensive use of
> >> plugins, i.e. shared objects dynamically loaded at runtime.  Many of
> >> these plugins are linked with third-party libraries.  The licenses of
> >> those libraries vary, including at least GPL, LGPL and X11.  Now I'm
> >> trying to work out what choices of license for my program would allow
> >> distribution of binaries, and also what would be DFSG-free.  I'd
> >> appreciate some comments about these matters.
> >
> > If you choose any of those licenses (GPL, LGPL, X11), you should be
> > fine.  There is no problem using those plugins with your program.  So
> > the question comes down to which one you prefer for your own work.
> 
> OK, say I use the X11 license.  Now suppose someone installs a closed
> source plugin.  Suppose it also happens that this same user has
> installed some GPL plugin.  Both plugins would be allowed separately,
> right?  When the user runs the program, it will load both plugins.
> Would this in some magical way make the plugins derived works of each
> other, thus violating the GPL?

No. But a vendor could get into trouble if they shipped both.

-- 
  .''`.  ** Debian GNU/Linux ** | Andrew Suffield
 : :' :  http://www.debian.org/ |
 `. `'                          |
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