A few comments

[Richard Laager]

On Fri, 2007-10-19 at 19:00 +1300, Eion Robb wrote:
> > Note that Pidgin is *not* written using a non-free library.  This is
> > not relevant.  You would be attempting to apply this retroactively to
> > established Free software, not to new software which has never been
> > licensed, which is what the above text concerns.
> 
> Whoops,  I wasn't meaning to talk about Pidgin, just the plugin I'm
> writing.  It's just that a plugin is a licensing derivative of the program
> it's a plugin for, and I'm getting confused between my programs :)
> 
> Here's my train of logic:
> Someone said I was using Skype as a library, and since that is not free,
> its a violation of the GPL.  If that were the case, why would the GPL FAQ
> talk about linking with non-free libraries as a possible (though not
> desirable) thing?

As the author of a GPL-ed piece of software (your plugin), you are free
to add an exception that says it's okay to link your plugin with the
non-free library. This is undesirable, of course, but legally within
your rights. HOWEVER, if your plugin is a derivative work of libpurple,
which is released on the GPL, then you have to release it in a
compatible way. Releasing it under the GPL is thus required. BUT, the
libpurple license doesn't have an exception for linking to Skype, so you
can't add one.

To summarize (and again, IANAL; this is not legal advice):

1. What you're doing is contrary to the goals of Free Software.

2. If your plugin is not a derivative of libpurple, you can release it
under whatever license you wish. If you choose the GPL, you will need to
add an exception allowing linking against the Skype software. It still
sucks in a freedom sense (see #1).

3. If your plugin is a derivative of libpurple, you cannot add an
exception, as libpurple's license does not allow you to do that. Without
an exception, it would then be illegal to distribute your plugin.

4. Determining whether or not your plugin is a derivative of libpurple
is complex and a legal issue. Please, let's leave this one to real legal
experts and stop arguing about it here. Sean said he'd ask the lawyers.

Richard
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