[PD] porting a Pd patch to Max license issues

[Bryan Jurish]

moin Marco,

sounds like a case for the "system library exception" to me; see here:

  http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLIncompatibleLibs

... my take is that for a (Pd|Max|...) patch, the dataflow interpreter
(Pd, Max, or what have you) represents the required "system library" for
use of that patch, so the copyleft doesn't kick in.  If you're the
copyright holder, you can also always add explicit "linking exceptions"
to GPL'd code, but I think that shouldn't be necessary in this case,
since interpreter (Pd|Max|...) and program code (patch) are cleanly
separated.

marmosets,
	Bryan

On 2012-03-14 13:48, Marco Donnarumma wrote:
> hey folks,
> 
> I'm not going to port anything to Max, but someone expressed interest in
> porting the Xth Sense in Max.
> 
> Now, apart from my personal view about this, which is a diplomatic "I'd
> rather not, thanks. Port the patch you need to Pd instead".
> 
> what are the license issues here?
> The XS framework in Pd will be GPL.
> Can a Max software be GPL? What about copyleft then?
> 
> I found this but it's not clear. and I thought there could not be GPL
> software written in Max because the interpreter is closed-source.
> http://www.cycling74.com/forums/topic.php?id=1139
> 
> and this is nothing new but good and clear resource:
> http://www.blogherald.com/2009/07/07/the-basics-of-the-gpl/
> 
> thoughts, previous cases?


-- 
Bryan Jurish                           "There is *always* one more bug."
moocow.bovine at gmail.com         -Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology