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Yes, I know you're not a lawyer. But writing software these days means understanding the bazillion licenses that we use day in and day out.

I'm struggling currently with Squid's GPL V2 License. Squid is a client side caching proxy server with flexible authorization capabilities. One of these authorization capabilities is to allow an "external_acl_type". The external_acl_type can defer an authorization request to an external binary and communicates via STDIN/OUT redirection.

The external_acl_type binary I've created is substantial and could potentially answer authorization requests from any scriptable proxy. In that sense, my external_acl_type program is independent of squid. However, squid (in my opinion) is currently the best client side proxy - and I would like to bundle a pre-configured squid with my binary.

Under the terms of GPL V2, must I license my external application as GPL V2 to be in compliance with bundling squid?

Are there other robust proxies that I can bundle with my software that are clearly less restrictive then GPL V2?

Please advise either on alternate programming solutions, or your interpretation of the GPL V2 as a programmer. I realize that you are not legal council?

Thanks

+1  A: 

That sounds OK, according to the answer to "If a program released under the GPL uses plug-ins, what are the requirements for the licenses of a plug-in?" in the GPL FAQ.

Matthew Slattery