Devel Digest, Vol 7, Issue 38

[Sascha Vogt]

Hi Ethan, hi all!

First: I'm totally pro OSS and
Second: I do not use Skype, so that doesn't affect me personally.

Ethan Blanton schrieb:
> Eion Robb spake unto us the following wisdom:
>> I'm not sure if you (or most people on the devel list) understand how
>> the connection is made between the client (eg my plugin) using the API
>> and Skype. The Skype 'API' isn't a traditional API or library or
>> anything to link to, its just a protocol with a different name. For
>> example, sending "NAME Pidgin" over an x11/win32 message, tells Skype
>> that there's a program with the name 'Pidgin' connecting to it.  No
>> linking of libraries or nothing.
> 
> I understand that the Skype API uses D-Bus or X11 as an RPC mechanism.
> I find that irrelevant.  This is nothing more than a craven attempt to
> circumvent the GPL.  I'm not sure *you* understand the implications
> here.

Let me ask one question: If the Skype API would be using a local daemon
to which someone could connect via TCP. Would it then be OK? Because
until now I thought D-Bus is in some way not more than a way how
different processes can communicate. I never thought of it as RPC
mechanism (of course you can use it as such, but thats not different
from sending XML messages -> WebServices).

You send a "message" to another process. IMHO it doesn't matter a) where
the process is located (local or remote) and b) what sort of message
this is (a standardized object, a XML message, ...). But of course this
depends a little on the view on it and I think if you're gonna ask two
lawyers you'll get at least three opinions on that :)

Greetings
-Sascha-