Re: epiphany-extensions license

["Joe Shaw" <joe joeshaw org>]

Hi,

On 9/1/07, Reinout van Schouwen <reinouts gnome org> wrote:
> He says that he thinks that the requirement for epiphany extensions to
> be GPL'ed is a bit too strict, and that any GPL-compatible license
> should be ok.
>
> I'd like to formulate a proper reply to Joe's question, but I'm not
> quite sure how to proceed and I'm no expert in this area.

Great!

> The COPYING.README file from epiphany-extensions gives a clue:
>
> http://svn.gnome.org/viewcvs/epiphany-extensions/trunk/COPYING.README?view=markup
>
> I wonder if 'linked to epiphany at runtime' also holds for Python
> extensions. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Another thing to keep in mind that someone pointed out to me is that
the GPL doesn't really concern itself with linking, only distribution.
 So I don't see a reason why someone on their own couldn't distribute
a totally proprietary plugin to Epiphany.  That would probably prevent
them from additionally distributing Epiphany, however, and also from
shipping the two together.

FWIW, the FSF's position on this type of thing is here:

    http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLAndPlugins

Although I'm not sure I necessarily agree that sharing data structures
constitutes a derivative work.

In any case, I am interested in hearing what you think about it!

Thanks,
Joe