docs/pwg/appendix-licensing.xml

<chapter id="chapter-licensing-advisory">
  <title>GStreamer licensing</title>
<sect1 id="section-application-licensing">
  <title>How to license the code you write for <application>GStreamer</application></title>
<para>
GStreamer is a plugin-based framework licensed under the LGPL. The reason 
for this choice in licensing is to ensure that everyone can use GStreamer 
to build applications using licenses of their choice.
</para>
<para>
To keep this policy viable, the GStreamer community has made a few 
licensing rules for code to be included in GStreamer's core or GStreamer's 
official modules, like our plugin packages. We require that all code going 
into our core package is LGPL. For the plugin code, we require the use of 
the LGPL for all plugins written from scratch or linking to external 
libraries. The only exception to this is when plugins contain older code 
under more liberal licenses (like the MPL or BSD). They can use those 
licenses instead and will still be considered for inclusion. We do not 
accept GPL code to be added to our plugins module, but we do accept 
LGPL-licensed plugins using an external GPL library. The reason for 
demanding plugins be licensed under the LGPL, even when using a GPL 
library, is that other developers might want to use the plugin code as a 
template for plugins linking to non-GPL libraries.
</para>
<para>
We also plan on splitting out the plugins using GPL libraries into a 
separate package eventually and implement a system which makes sure an 
application will not be able to access these plugins unless it uses some 
special code to do so. The point of this is not to block GPL-licensed 
plugins from being used and developed, but to make sure people are not 
unintentionally violating the GPL license of said plugins. 
</para>
<para>
This advisory is part of a bigger advisory with a FAQ which you can find
on the <ulink url="http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/licensing.html">GStreamer website</ulink>
</para>
  </sect1>
</chapter>