I write a GPL network daemon (say red carpet). Someone write a non-GPL compliant client (say an LGPL encapsulation of the RedCarpet XML-RPC protocol to allow proprietary implementations). Now that library is calling GPL code, albeit via a network protocol. Is the client library in breach of the GPL?
Potentially, yes. :)
A GIMP plug-in is a completely different process space than the GIMP core.
I don't think that the GPL cares in the slightest about process spaces per se.
> Information is passed via a wire protocol which is implemented at
both ends using LGPL code. I don't see how this is different from viewing the GIMP as a server, and the plug-in as a client. Or alternatively, the PDB as a broker and both the plug-ins and the rest of the core as clients.
Sure, but I don't think that's relevant, as such. We are basically talking about something very function-oriented like RPC, not something data-oriented like FTP. Putting it another way, we wouldn't expect for example a (non-system) GPL DLL to be licence- safe to link to a closed-source app just because ld.so was under a BSD-like license. Note that if this were not an issue then any app could use GPL code freely as long as it interceded IPC like a simple wire-protocol. (Personally, 'linking' like this would be entirely fine by me, but it's trivial to interpret the GPL as disallowing it, so we explicitly except it for the PDB/gimpwire.)
--Adam
--
Adam D. Moss . ,,^^ adam@xxxxxxxx http://www.foxbox.org/ co:3
"Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves." --Thoreau
