[LAD] GPL and plugins

[Victor Lazzarini]

Then there is the situation where you write a plugin using VST (and  
its non-free license) and GPL. GPL should 'contaminate' the plugin  
making it Free, but then Steinberg will come back at you for breaking  
its license. Surely if you use GPL code, then you need to publish your  
header files too.

Sorry, I did not mean to make this discussion longer than it needs to  
be, but...

Victor

On 22 Jun 2010, at 03:10, Paul Davis wrote:

> I believe that the FSF has never written a version of the GPL that
> really addresses this, which is why they need to say things like "We
> believe ..." in the FAQ. 10 years ago, this was a hot topic for them,
> and they've utterly failed to address it with any concrete changes to
> the GPL. This may be their intent, but its certainly not mine, and its
> not the intent of quite a few other people who develop under the GPL
> either. The idea that because a particular host can load my plugin, my
> plugin becomes a derivate work of that host is frankly just absurd.
> Which license would a VST plugin fall under, given that it can be
> loaded into Ardour, Cubase, Sonar or Samplitude? Which host is it a
> derivative of? If I write a GPL'ed VST plugin (they do exist), at what
> point does the run time linkage change the licensing of either the
> plugin or a host that loads it?