"Licensed" codecs

[Pavel Rosenboim]

Alan Cox wrote:

>>Plugins and addons should not be considered derivitives automatically. 
>>If I write a "pluging" for the GIMP, that mimics the functionality of a 
>>comercial Photoshop plugin, why woul it be a derivitive of the GIMP? Now 
>>If I modified an existin, GPLed, GIMP plugin, that would have to be GPL. 
>>If I write a new plugin from scratch, using the defined plugin 
>>interface, that should not have to be GPL.
> 
> 
> Consult a lawyer. The definition of 'derivative' is complicated to say the least. 
> For actual GPL code the GPL itself deliberately takes a "free nor not at all"
> approach.

There exist non-GPLd kernel modules, though (NVIDIA drivers,etc...). Do
you want to say that they are illegal?

Pavel.