[LAD] GPL and plugins

[Victor Lazzarini]

The plugin is just a Free software plugin, that is GPL, distributed in  
binary form and source code etc. It is written as a plugin, so it can  
be used by any host of the same API. The host will load this plugin  
instead of the proprietary non-free plugin that it replaces. The  
plugin is made available separately, but is also bundled with the  
host, which loads it automatically.

My reasons for asking this are that I was asked to write such a plugin  
and i) I don't normally do proprietary software; ii) I don't like to  
reinvent the wheel. If I can't provide a free solution, I may as well  
not take the job.

Victor

On 21 Jun 2010, at 20:34, Chris Cannam wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 7:22 PM, Victor Lazzarini
> <Victor.Lazzarini at nuim.ie> wrote:
>> I think this is the closest to the scenario I am envisaging. There  
>> is a
>> host, which is non-Free and commercial, currently using a non-Free  
>> plugin,
>> which is packaged with it. This non-Free plugin gets substituted by  
>> a Free
>> plugin, which is free because, amongst other things, it links to a  
>> GPL
>> dynamic library. Is this breaking the original GPL license of the  
>> dynamic
>> lib the plugin links to?
>
> That doesn't seem like enough information for anyone to attempt an  
> answer.
>
> What do you mean by "gets substituted by"?  Do the distributors of the
> application swap in the GPL plugin, or does the user who received it?
> If the latter, how?  Was the GPL plugin written specifically to
> replace the proprietary one?  Can it be used in other hosts?
>
> My inclination is that the answer to your question is probably no,
> this wouldn't violate the licence.  But the fact that you're asking at
> all makes me wonder whether this is a situation in which the plugin
> has been designed specifically to interact with a single proprietary
> application, or a situation in which the host is distributed with a
> plugin that is treated differently from others.  If that's so, then
> it's possible a court might think that the plugin containing API code
> was a derivative work of the host that implemented the API.
>
> I'm not aware of any case in which this has actually been tested  
> either way.
>
>
> Chris