[LAD] GPL and plugins

[Gabriel M. Beddingfield]

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.