[FFmpeg-devel] [DECISION] Project policy on closed source components

Mark Thompson sw at jkqxz.net
Mon Apr 29 00:21:51 EEST 2019


On 28/04/2019 21:02, Marton Balint wrote:
> ... closed source libraries which are not considered "System Libraries" according to the GPL ...

Please can you define this in a precise way which does not rely upon interpreting the GPL?  There are certainly differing opinions about exactly what it means, and we need to know exactly what we are voting on.

For example, you might consider rejecting a library only if none of the following are true:
(1) Full human-readable source code is available for everything which runs on the same processor as FFmpeg does.
(2) It implements a standardised API independent of any particular vendor (common to at least three separate vendors?).
(3) It interfaces with some common consumer hardware: a whole PC-like system containing it can be widely purchased off-the-shelf for less than 1000 EUR/USD, with all closed-source components provided as part of the operating system.

... or something like that.

Thanks,

- Mark


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