[Audacity-devel] RE: Plug-ins and the GPL

[Richard <ric...@mo...>]

I hate to get involved in these religious arguments...

However it seems a bit ironic that one effect of having an "open" license is
to make it harder to integrate with other applications - one promise of open
source is supposed to be wider compatability...

Dominic wrote:
> Clearly we could add an extension to LADSPA that enables native GUIs. 
> However, in this case it'd be hard to argue that we're not 
> explicitly adding support for VST to Audacity.
> 
> - Dominic

Why? One could write a GPL LADSPA plug-in with a GUI.

Nothing in the GPL text stops you extending a GPL app to have a binary
interface. It may (in various peoples opinion) stop you *shipping* the app
with a non-GPL binary (like a VST enabler) that you built to circumvent the
GPL. However if the VST enabler is built by someone else and available from
a different site, then you can't really be accused of breaking the GPL by
just providing an interface that it can use. 

Possibly the end-users would breach the GPL - most of them are breaching the
Fraunhofer patents as well by using MP3.

Obviously one doesn't want to disrespect peoples hard work in making
software, but once you GPL something (as opposed to taking the Steinberg
approach and making people register to get a copy) you are realistically
giving away some control.

--
Richard

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