At 09:27 PM 8/30/2005, Robert McGwier wrote:
<... deleted ...> In fact we use several proprietary plugins. We use a "dll plugin" for the USB widget (remember that one?) and we all use "sound card device driver" plugins every time we power the radio up. So I am unfamiliar with this decision.
I do not think the GPL applies to the sound card device driver, as the device driver is not a part of the program - it runs in a different process and address space, and the GPL only applies to a program, which most would define as that entity that sits within a single processes address space. The dll plugin for the USB widget is a different matter. If the author of the USB widget DLL were to distribute the plugin and the PowerSDR code I believe one who received such code would have rights under the GPL to ask for the source for all of it, including the USB plugin.
The GPL does not prevent you from making a non-GPL contribution. It prevents you from using GPL code in your contribution and distributing with out your code being GPL OR without a separate license with the copyright holders. So long as your code does not copy GPL code in to it, you are free to do what you want. I am absolutely certain that after the "I/Q taps" and "audio taps" come out that lots of plugins will be made available from all over the place. I encourage it.
Again, if the DLL plugin is distributed by someone with PowerSDR then I'd say the GPL applies to the DLL plugin.
This is clearly an area reasonable people can disagree on - they wording of the GPL is ambiguous in that it does not define what a program is in any meaningful technical way. I will admit my interpretation of it is somewhat conservative.
Regards, Bill (kd5tfd)
