Program With Plugins: GPL With LGPL?

Question

I have two distinct projects:

1. The Program which I want to release under the GPL license.
2. The Plugin API: Plugins are written using interfaces in this API, and The Program uses to the API to communicate with plugins. I want to release The Plugin API with the LGPL license.

One problem is that I would not want plugins to have to reveal their source. Would they be "infected" by the GPL license? They would be compiled against the API, and wouldn't need the source for The Program to compile.

Another problem is that there's all this talk of "static-linking" for the LGPL: the program and the API are written in Java. Does this matter?

Anyway, my basic question: does it make any sense to release The Program with the GPL, and its public API with the LGPL?

Answer 1

It's your copyright. The easy thing is to add text to say "I don't interpret the plugin API as causing GPL infection of plugins".

IANAL.

Answer 2

If you are writing your application from scratch, you can license it however you want. If you want to make an exception to the GPL for plugins, there is precedent. A GPL Linking Exception (such as the Classpath Exception) is what you're looking for.