Re: [Tracker] Can I write a proprietary plug-in to extract meta data from a private file format?

[Jürg Billeter <j bitron ch>]

On Wed, 2010-12-01 at 08:47 +0000, Martyn Russell wrote:
> On 01/12/10 01:02, Lin, Mengdong wrote:
> > Many thanks for your confirmation! I've forwarded your advice to our legal department and hope we can 
> > pass the check.
>
> There was some debate internally after your email about this. It is not 
> widely agreed that what I said is accurate. So a legal representative 
> would certainly be best to answer this.
>
> The alternative is to re-license tracker-extract to LGPL which the team 
> generally agrees with I believe.
>
> Juergbi, can you recall the exact reasons why?

How I understand it is that due to tracker-extract being GPL, the used
libraries have to be GPL as well. In the case of the LGPL-licensed
libtracker-extract, this means that you need to make use of the LGPL
clause that allows you to use any LGPL-licensed code under the terms of
the GPL.

However, if you do this, you have to follow the GPL terms to
libtracker-extract for all extractor plugins as well. IANAL and you'll
need to check this with your legal department to be sure. The GStreamer
FAQÂ has an entry with a similar conclusion.

If we relicense tracker-extract and extractor plugins from GPL to LGPL,
this issue should no longer exist.

Regards,
JÃrg

 http://www.gstreamer.net/data/doc/gstreamer/head/faq/html/chapter-legal.html#legal-distribute-three