On 28 Mar 2002, at 12:35, Sven Neumann wrote: > "Branko Collin" <collin@xxxxxxxxx> writes: > > > > I heard that Gobe Productive (http://www.gobe.com/) ships with > > > plug-ins based on source code from The GIMP and sent them a > > > letter asking for source code. I'm forwarding their answer here... > > > > IANAL, so IMO these are the things you should run by the FSF, just > > to make sure. > > > > (zblt... acronym overload...) > > > > Specifically, I wonder if using GPL'ed plug-ins cause the main app > > to become GPL'ed. > > I think the license could indeed be interpreted in that way. Actually > a couple of commercial applications showed up over the years that > definitely (or most probably) use GIMP code to some extent. This is at > least annoying and I wonder if we should start to defend our licence. > On the other hand we might be interested in establishing the GIMP > plug-in protocol and could even benefit from commercial apps > supporting it. I find that hard to judge. For all we know, these 'lost' plug-ins cost us our competitive edge, equalling less users, equalling less developers. Is that important? I don't know. Anyway, just asking the FSF what's up with this won't mean they start sueing right away. But the FSF do have the legal knowledge that we probably lack. -- branko collin collin@xxxxxxxxx
