[Mailman-Developers] Can i use the Bouncer API a Programm wich is not GPL?

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Marc Egli writes:

 > Now my question is: can i release my application under a less
 > restrictive license like the bsd license?

Probably not.

 > According to the gpl-faq this is a borderline case because i only
 > invoke a function and wait for the response.
 > http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#NFUseGPLPlugins

The plugin really needs to be designed as a separate program with a
single entry point and enumerated options (at most, with simple data
types like strings and integers as arguments) to qualify as borderline
here.  However, the Bouncer API requires two complex data structures
(a mailing list object and a message object) to be passed in.  That
pretty clearly is covered in the second paragraph of that FAQ, not the
third.

Sorry.  Like many in the Mailman community, I lean to the permissive
side of the free software movement.  I'd like to say "sure, you can do
that."  But you'd be at risk of being sued (by the FSF, no less) if
you did.  IANAL etc etc, and you might want to get a more
authoritative opinion from the FSF itself.