[music-dsp] looking for a flexible synthesis system technically and legally appropriate for iOS development

[Erik de Castro Lopo]

Morgan Packard wrote:

> It seems there are a number of ways to interpret whether an
> application which links to a GPL library must be open-sourced as well
> (based on wikipedia's expert legal advice).

Wikipedia is not a legal expert nor am I.

The Free Software Foundation which publishes the GPL considers
any code which links, either statically or dynamically to a GPL
library is subject to terms of the GPL.

The FSF has two main license :

  - GPL : requires that any code which links, either staticly or
    dynamically to a GPL library be subject to terms of the GPL.

  - LGPL : specifically allows closed source and/or proprietary
    programs to dynamically link to the library. Also allows static
    linking if and only if the author provides all binary objects
    required to relink the program to a newer version of library.

You can read the licenses for yourself here:

    http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
    http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html

There is one legal and acceptable way to have GPL incompatible
(closed source and/or proprietary) code interoperate with GPL
software, and thats by having the two pieces of software
communicate over a pipe, socket or stdin/stdout.

Erik

PS : I am the main author of two FOSS libraries, one GPL and one
LGPL and I agree with the FSF's reading of the licenses.

-- 
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Erik de Castro Lopo
http://www.mega-nerd.com/