> The next question that comes to mind is thus:
> What if a new library X' released under BSD or MIT license implements
> the X API (making possible to compile Y against it)? Can such a new
> library X' be licensed under something else than the GPL (we guess Yes
> because we don't think it is possible to license the API itself)?
Yes.
> Why should the existence of X' make any difference for the author
> of Y?
Because the existence of X' makes it possible to use Y without using X.
The order in which X and X' come to exist doesn't matter.
This exact scenario took place for the GMP library, whose API was
reimplemented as fgmp, specifically so that a user of the GMP
library could release their code under a different library than the GPL.
Stefan
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