License question for Phonon VLC backend

[Thiago Macieira]

Em Sexta-feira 19 Fevereiro 2010, às 08:41:06, Ben Lau escreveu:
> Hi,
> 
>    According to the source file of phonon-vlc backend(e.g
> mediacontroller.h) , it is licensed under LGPL. But libvlc is licensed
> under GPL. So if an application bundle phonon-vlc backend and use
> phonon-vlc for media playing . They should also release their source
> code under GPL. Is it right?

No. You can license your own code under any license you choose, provided it is 
compatible with the licenses from any other code you're linking to. In the 
case of the GPL, the requirement is that you do not add any restriction on top 
of what GPL restricts. But you can choose any license that has less 
restrictions than the GPL, like the LGPL, BSD licenses, etc.

The VLC backend's code is licensed under the LGPL. But since it requires 
libvlc to run (which is GPL), all the restrictions of the GPL apply at 
runtime.

If your application bundles the VLC backend (as opposed to not shipping 
anything, just leaving it up to the system to choose the backend), I would say 
that your entire application must comply with the GPL terms. That means you 
must provide the source code to your application.

If you leave it up to the system to decide at runtime, I don't know.

And, as usual, IANAL.

-- 
Thiago Macieira - thiago (AT) macieira.info - thiago (AT) kde.org
  Senior Product Manager - Nokia, Qt Development Frameworks
      PGP/GPG: 0x6EF45358; fingerprint:
      E067 918B B660 DBD1 105C  966C 33F5 F005 6EF4 5358
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