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This is my opinion:
- Wireshark is GPL v2, all sources available, does not link with any non-free software.
- Wireshark is linked with the WinPcap SDK, that defines a binary interface that both WinPcap and npcap offer, thus Wireshark does not depend on any non-free software
- There is an exception in the npcap licence that allows npcap distribution by the Wireshark project as part of the Wireshark installer.
- At runtime, Wireshark loads the user-mode portion of a capture library that supports the defined binary interface.
The fact that the user-mode portion may come from non-free software doesn't invalidate the Wireshark GPL2 licence, in a similar way to a Linux kernel loading non-free modules.
For parties other than the Wireshark project, the npcap licence may prevent distribution, that's a matter for those parties and the npcap project to resolve.
This is my opinion:
- Wireshark is GPL v2, all sources available, does not link with any non-free software.
- Wireshark is linked with the WinPcap SDK, that defines a binary interface that both WinPcap and npcap offer, thus Wireshark does not depend on any non-free software
- There is an exception in the npcap licence that allows npcap distribution by the Wireshark project as part of the Wireshark installer.
- At runtime, Wireshark loads the user-mode portion of a capture library that supports the defined binary interface.
The fact that the user-mode portion may come from non-free software doesn't invalidate the Wireshark GPL2 licence, in a similar way to a Linux kernel loading non-free modules.modules
For parties other than the Wireshark project, the npcap licence may prevent distribution, that's a matter for those parties and the npcap project to resolve.