[FFmpeg-user] Licensing ffmpeg

[Carl Zwanzig]

On 9/22/2019 9:27 PM, kushal ghosh wrote:
> Yes. I took a published build of ffmpeg and want to use commercially.
> I am not very specific in using any of the licensed or patented parts of
> ffmpeg.
> So basically I want to n=know what the thing to be done so that I can
> commercially use it.
> I believe only LGPL part of it can be used freely?

You need to actually read the GPL and LGPL text (or even the GPL FAQ), that 
will tell you what you can do and how. (And what does "use it commercially" 
mean, anyway? Sell it? Sell something -containing- parts of ffmpeg? 
Something else?)

See https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html and 
https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html, they're fairly clear.


I'll go out on a limb and say that you should be OK if you distribute a 
binary built without "--enable-gpl" or "--enable-nonfree", include or make 
available the exact source code used to build that binary, and include the 
appropriate copyright/license info (this is all on the "legal" page).


You also need to stop top-posting on this mailing list.

Later,

z!
not a lawyer, not giving legal advice, not even a committer to the ffmpeg 
project