From 261ba186cdd8566d1c0a97d21280eaaa952d5fa8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Paul Davis Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2023 13:28:24 -0600 Subject: [PATCH] add plugin clarification to COPYING This text was already in the About dialog, but should be here too. --- COPYING | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 22 insertions(+) diff --git a/COPYING b/COPYING index d8cf7d463e..9a99a18576 100644 --- a/COPYING +++ b/COPYING @@ -6,6 +6,28 @@ Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed. + Plugin Clarification + +The following states the Ardour developers understanding of the +relationship between Ardour's license (GPL v2.0 or later) and plugins. + +For the purposes of this understanding, "plugins" refer to software +dynamically loaded by another program, where the interaction between the +plugin and the loading program (typically called "the host") is defined by +a 3rd party API. Such APIs include (but are not limited to) VST, +AudioUnits, LV2, LADSPA and CLAP. + +Since (a) any such plugin may be loaded by any host that supports the API +and (b) any host may load any plugin that supports the API, we consider it +self-evident that there can be no "derivative" relationship (in the sense +of the GPL's use of this term) between the host and plugin. + +Consequently, Ardour may load arbitrarily licensed plugins, so as to cause +interactions between Ardour and the plugin via a 3rd party API, without any +implications for either Ardour or the plugin. In our understanding, Using +such plugins with Ardour is not impacted in any way by Ardour's GPL licensing. + + Preamble The licenses for most software are designed to take away your