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I have a legacy application that works with DirectShow filters installed in the system, these are essentially treated as COM components and not directly linked or distributed with the application. If these components are pre-installed in the system, then I can use them, if not then this particular function of the application isn’t even available. However, I directly call API functions of these components from my application during runtime after creating an instance of the said COM component by directly calling a specific CSID.

I’m trying to figure out if this means that in case if application should ever be distributed outside of the company it should be licensed under GPLv2 as well or not.

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    Does your application specifically use these GPLv2 filters, or does it just use any filter available to setup the graph, and it just so happens those GPL filters do the job? Commented Aug 14, 2017 at 16:09

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You won't have to license it under GPLv2 as long as you do not distribute it together with the GPLV2 components, and as long as - at least in theory - an non-GPL version of the DirectShow filters would work with your program as well.

If you have a non-GPL program which loads an additional non-GPL component through an interface or plugin technology like COM, the GPL obviously does not apply to your program. If now a user replaces the non-GPL component by a GPL component after installation of your program, this happens in private or in his organization, so this obviously does not give you an obligation to change the license of your program afterwards, and it is fully compliant with the GPL.

IMHO this situation does not change if you make it very easy for your users to do the replacement, for example by providing detailed instructions how to do install the GPL components, or by making your program downloading and installing the GPL components for them on demand. And indeed, there are many closed-source programs which provide such instructions, and at least some of them having a feature for downloading and installing additional GPL components, exactly for avoiding the distribution of those components.

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