[vlc-devel] Re: How can add a new codec module to VLC?

[Sam Hocevar]

On Thu, May 20, 2004, Matthew Romaine wrote:

> Heh, I'm glad you brought this up.  I haven't gotten around to 
> consulting with lawyers yet, but my understanding is that the GPL 
> doesn't really restrict linking to a proprietary library.

   Yes it does. When redistributing the source code, you need to provide
every single line of code (and build scripts) that were used to build
the program, with the exception of the compiler, the kernel and so on.
Nothing prevents you from building GPLed program A against library B.
However, if you distribute program A, you must also provide the source
code for library B under the same terms.

> The GPL doesn't require that I also release the proprietary 
> library, right? (i.e., my contributions for the time being may be 
> unusable...)

   Yes it does. GPL does not restrict usage, but redistribution. As a
VLC developer I support this view because amongst other reasons it means
that we can port features to other architectures and have better chances
to fix bugs. Also, if the proprietary library's developer disappears, we
can still maintain it. I like it this way.

-- 
Sam.

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