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

[Tom Felker]

On Friday 26 March 2004 9:44 am, Lourens Veen wrote:
> On Fri 26 March 2004 15:53, Christian HJ Wiesner wrote:

> > 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?

I think he's refering to this, near the end of section 3 of the GPL:

| However, as a
| special exception, the source code distributed need not include
| anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
| form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
| operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
| itself accompanies the executable.

In other words, the GPL doesn't prohibit linking with, say, the proprietary 
msvcrt60.dll, or in this case, the DirectShow libraries, because they are 
part of the OS and aren't being distributed with the project.

That is only with respect to the filter's license; it's possible that 
Microsoft's license for the DirectShow libraries attempts to restrict the 
licenses of filters.  Microsoft hates the GPL, but doesn't mind BSD.

IANAL,

-- 
Tom Felker, <tcfelker at mtco.com>
<http://vlevel.sourceforge.net> - Stop fiddling with the volume knob.

"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about 
Exchange Server next.
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