linuxaudio.org

On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 7:13 AM, Victor Lazzarini

 wrote:

quoted text
> 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?

RMS and others within the FSF would appear to like this to be a

complex question. It was always a gray area of GPL2, and originally

GPL3 was going to clear it up before Tivoization became the main focus

of GPL3.
Your question is often asked in reverse - can a GPL'ed host load

non-GPL'ed plugins, and I think that the answer here is extremely

straightforward: yes, if the plugin uses an API which is independent

of any particular host and only interacts with the host via that API.
But I think that in the direction that you asked it then I think its a

little more restrictive, with the same proviso that Chris offered: you

as a user of a GPL'ed plugin can do whatever you want with it,

including load it into a non-GPL host. However, I don't believe that

the developers and/or distributors of the host can arrange for this

happen in any "automatic" way, and would even be skirting a thin line

by packaging their host with GPL'd plugins that would be discovered

automatically.
--p

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