[Ffmpeg-cvslog] [ffmpeg.org]: r40 - trunk/src/legal

[Michel Bardiaux]

Diego Biurrun wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 25, 2006 at 06:18:46PM +0200, Diego Biurrun wrote:
>> On Fri, Aug 25, 2006 at 04:15:43PM +0200, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
>>> On Fri, Aug 25, 2006 at 03:45:19PM +0200, diego wrote:
>>>> Log:
>>>> Mention that libswscale is GPL as well.
>>>> Clarify that the LGPL does not only apply to the libs contained in FFmpeg.
>>>>
>>>> --- trunk/src/legal	(original)
>>>> +++ trunk/src/legal	Fri Aug 25 15:45:19 2006
>>>> @@ -14,16 +14,17 @@
>>>>  
>>>>  <H3>FFmpeg License</H3>
>>>>  FFmpeg is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License, or LGPL.
>>>> -Essentially, this means that you are allowed to use the FFmpeg library in
>>>> +Essentially, this means that you are allowed to use parts of FFmpeg in
>>>>  your own application, regardless of your application's license. However, if
>>> the LGPL allows applications to link at runtime to LGPL code or it allows
>>> linking at compiletime if and only if either the whole source code of the
>>> application or object files is provided so the user can relink the 
>>> application with a more recent version of the library
>>>
>>> what you wrote sounds like the user could copy and paste parts at will into
>>> his propriatery code
>> Hmm, yes, it's not particularly clear.
>>
>> I talked to somebody on IRC in #ffmpeg earlier today.  He was confused
>> about the license of ffmpeg.exe and similar since the website and the
>> LGPL keep talking about "library".  My intention was to clarify that.
>>
>> Thinking about it, it's probably not a good idea to give a short and
>> sweet explanation of the LGPL on this page, it seems to be destined to
>> fail.
> 
> I propose ripping out the interpretations of the (L)GPL and replacing
> with the following:
> 
>   FFmpeg License
> 
>   FFmpeg is licensed under the <a href="/link/to/text">GNU Lesser General
>   Public License (LGPL)</a>.  However, FFmpeg incorporates several 

Insert "optional"
> modules
>   that are covered by the <a href="/link/to/text">GNU General Public
>   License (GPL)</a>, notably liba52, libpostproc and libswscale.  If those
>   parts get used the GPL applies to all of FFmpeg.
> 
>   Read the license texts to learn how this affects programs built on top
>   of FFmpeg or reusing parts of FFmpeg.

I would not venture into "reusing parts". If you use most of FFMPEG, GPL 
or LGPL should apply - I think. But under what conditions one might 
copy/paste one entire source file, or even a small part of one, is not 
clear at all.

>  You may also wish to have a look
>   at <a href="/link/to/text">the GPL FAQ</a>.
> 
> Comments welcome.
> 
> Diego


-- 
Michel Bardiaux
R&D Director
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