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

[Ronald S. Bultje]

Hi,

On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 3:53 AM, Jason Garrett-Glaser <jason at x264.com> wrote:
> This is *not* like libfaac. ?libfaac is nonfree because it isn't
> GPL-compatible at all; the terms of its license mean it cannot be
> linked with ffmpeg, GPL or LGPL. ?Non-GPL libx264, unlike faac, can be
> legally linked against ffmpeg and integrated into a product.

I disagree, it's exactly like libfaac. If the user has a license to
distribute libfaac, then he can link it to FFmpeg with no problem (as
long as FFmpeg is not GPL). But then the user would need to have
purchased a libfaac license from the relevant ref source copyright
owners, which is somewhat unlikely.

Basically x264-commercial and libfaac should be treated identically.
It could be legal with FFmpeg-LGPL, depending on whether they've sort
out their licenses correctly.

Ronald