[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Brian T. Sniffen) writes: >>>>>> What I'm trying to find out is, whether or not it's allowed to write a >>>>>> plugin, using GPL,d libraries, for a program with MIT license, for >>>>>> which there also exists plugins using OpenSSL (or anything >>>>>> GPL-incompatible). >>>>> >>>>> If you want a simply answer, the answer is: "No (insert disclaimers >>>>> here)" as others have pointed out. >>>> >>>> As someone said, writing is always allowed, it's distribution that's >>>> restricted. >>> >>> That's not quite what I said, and has a critical difference. I said >>> writing *the plugin itself* is allowed. Writing the combined work of >>> the framework, the OpenSSL-using-plugin, and the Readline-using-plugin >>> is not allowed by the GPL. >> >> If that's the case, we should put the entire KDE development team in >> jail. KDE is licensed under GPL, and uses both GPL stuff and OpenSSL. >> It also uses Java and Netscape plugins, which are very much non-free. > > Why would we put them in jail? They haven't done anything criminal.
When I run Konqueror to visit secure sites, both QT (which I obtained under the GPL) and OpenSSL are loaded in the same address space, which is enough to create a derived work, according to the FSF. You said yourself that even writing code capable of doing this was illegal. > KDE is also manifestly not a single work: I use konquerer but no other > part of it, for example. Any typical use of my program would use only a few of the available plugins. What's the difference? > The KDE folks have, from what I've seen, been quite careful with > licensing issues. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm trying to be, too. > Can you provide any specific examples of single works incorporating > pure-GPL work and linking against OpenSSL? KDE is distributed as a few huge tar files, obviously intended to be used together. Someone said that was enough to make the GPL apply to all of it. >>> Ask yourself this: is what you're doing in compliance with the wishes >>> of the authors of the various pieces of software you're using? >> >> I don't know what the authors wish, I'll have to ask them. > > They've told you in the license. They haven't told me their intent with choosing that particular license. -- Måns Rullgård [EMAIL PROTECTED]
