License issues for SkypeKit plugin

[David Smith]

I am also not a lawyer, but my understanding is that the GPL specifically exempts system libraries, with the intent of allowing open source software to run on closed source or partially closed source OSs. Things linking against Adium are, for better or worse, required to be GPL-licensed.

	David

On Nov 9, 2012, at 4:03 PM, Daniel Muhra <daniel.muhra at googlemail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I developed a SkypeKit plugin for Adium that I wanted to release on AdiumXtras. Unfortunately it was rejected with the remark, that SkypeKit's license would not allow it to use it within an open source product. Apparently the cited paragraph would be the following:
> 
> 10.1.5. 
> No portion of the SkypeKit Product contains or shall contain any Open Source Software or any other software that could interfere with or compromise Skype's Intellectual Property Rights in the SkypeKit or which may require you or Skype to disclose any source code included in the SkypeKit.
> 
> From my understanding, this does not imply Open Source Software in general, but only those, which would e.g. force you to provide the source code for the SkypeKit library. My code uses the MIT license so I see no implication for the SkypeKit library and thereby I should be safe.
> The only part I have doubts about is the fact, that my plugin uses SkypeKit and since Adium uses the GPL, Adium plugins need to be fully GPL compatible too. I'm not really sure what this means in terms of dependencies, but on the other hand, Adium itself is based on Cocoa which is definitely not using a GPL compatible license...
> 
> Has anyone here any thoughts on this (including some explanation)?
> 
> Cheers,
> Daniel

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