[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] configure: accept commercially-licensed libx264

Reimar Döffinger Reimar.Doeffinger
Mon Dec 13 19:11:21 CET 2010


On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 03:55:39PM -0200, Ramiro Polla wrote:
> It took me a while to understand why Ronald was against it, but I
> think I get it now, and my patch was missing some cases. If x264 is
> commercially licensed, then it should not be linked with GPL ffmpeg,
> and in that case it should be treated identically as faac. But it
> should be ok with LGPL ffmpeg.

Is there any reason why a commercially licensed libx264 would not
be GPL-compatible?
AFAICT the commercial license is basically "everything is still GPL
code, but we relieve you of some of the restrictions that the GPL poses
on you".
In that case the commercial libx264 can still be legally linked
against absolutely anything the GPL one can.
Admittedly there is the point that it is pointless, and probably
that they will have to offer source for libx264 despite having
a commercial license.
Maybe it's better to just disallow it anyway in order to avoid confusion...



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