Addon to a mod?

[Borisbee]

I was pondering creating a hibernation/cryosleep mod to go in tandem with the life support mods that have been popping up to make long distance trips more feasible. My question is, is it ok to include mod .dlls as references in my project so that I can extend those classes? I want compatibility with remotetech so that if there is signal to the ship it's still controllable if the kerbals are in hibernation and I see no way to do that without extending remotetech.

Or maybe a better question is, is this the way to go about doing something like this or is there another way?

Thanks

[XanderTek]

So long as you're not redistributing their code/dll I think you're free to do what you want with references. Redistribution permissions depend on the mod's license. You'll also want to consider whether its important that your mod work even if a user doesn't have the referenced mod installed.

Hmm... you may also want to check the license for permissions on derivative works. I not sure that applies to a simple reference, but it couldn't hurt to be sure.

[Majiir]

The license terms of the mods in question will determine this. Even "free software" licenses like GPL have restrictions on linking/referencing.