[vorbis-dev] Re: New Directshow filters preview...

[Lourens Veen]

On Fri 26 March 2004 15:53, Christian HJ Wiesner wrote:
>
> >Another reason is i intend to release source as BSD... i believe
> > your vorbis filters are GPL ? But that's a different issue.
>
> Really, for a DShow filter the license of the sourcecode is not
> so important IMO. The compiled plugin itself can easily be used
> by any closed source player, because thats what the plugin idea
> is about. The app calls DirectShow, which is a part of the OS
> itself and as such covered by the OS exception of the GNU, and
> DShow itself will call the filter and build the playback graph,
> so the app itself doesnt really interface with the filter and is
> not restricted by any license contraints if the filter is
> opensource, while the app ( player, capture program, whatever )
> is not.

You keep mentioning this "OS exception" of the GPL. Which clause is 
that?

Actually, I'm quite sure there is no such thing. The LGPL was 
created to allow proprietary applications to dynamically link to 
GNU libc. I think you may be confusing linking with the libc 
library with calling kernel functions. You can link your 
proprietary program with GNU libc because GNU libc is under the 
LGPL, and that program can (most often through libc) call the Linux 
kernel since these calls are done via a software interrupt and not 
by dynamic linking, so the fact that Linux is under the GPL is not 
a problem. Ofcourse, if you include kernel code in your program 
then you're creating a derived work and the GPL fully applies.

Lourens

-- 
GPG public key: http://home.student.utwente.nl/l.e.veen/lourens.key

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