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Sun Apr 2 00:30:59 UTC 2006


If I add a module to a GPL-covered program, do I have to use the GPL
as the license for my module?
    The GPL says that the whole combined program has to be released
under the GPL. So your module has to be available for use under the
GPL.

    But you can give additional permission for the use of your code.
You can, if you wish, release your program under a license which is
more lax than the GPL but compatible with the GPL. The license list
page gives a partial list of GPL-compatible licenses.

When you look at it that way, since this TapeWorm application works
directly with MythTV, it can be considered a module (even though it is
on a different computer, MythTV is already a multi-computer system)

> This is only a GPL violation if Myth code has directly been integrated
> or used as a direct basis for a non-GPL application. Stopping this kind
> of thing would be the same as stopping Samba, OOo .doc compatability,
> and so on.

Good examples, and I wonder about that, too. At the same time, those
are standalone applications. OpenOffice can edit its own documents and
read word documents. It's not a plugin for Microsoft Word like
TapeWorm is a plugin for MythTV. (not plugin in the myth sense of the
word, but the more general sense of an add-on program).

I would never want to be somebody standing behind the logic that
TapeWorm violates GPL, it's a very shaky conclusion, I was just
putting it out there as GPL can be in some ways interpreted to mean
that.


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