[FFmpeg-devel] Yadif relicensing to LGPL

[Robert Krüger]

Hi,

it has taken a while but this is now the proposal for the relicensing
of the filter yadif from GPL to LGPL:

There are a number of sponsors which have offered money for the
relicensing, in total 18075 Euro.

Michael has asked me to come up with a suggestion for the money split
and procedures and this is it:

7000 Euro are paid to Michael directly

Loren Merrit, Daniel Kang, James Darnley and Baptiste Coudurier
receive 1500 Euro each if they approve and their code is used.

The remaining 5075 Euro are given to the project via an SPI donation,
so it can be used to cover travel expenses, hardware etc..

The sponsors will commit to paying the money in an email to Michael
and me, provided the relicensing of yadif with at least its current
functionality and quality happens before the end of the year.

Payment will happen upon relicensing.

All contributors are again asked to give their approval to a
relicensing. Only the ones who already gave their approval without
conditions and have not contributed more code since then theoretically
do not need to approve again but it would still be nicer if they did.
The ones who answered to my email by saying something like “I’m OK
with relicensing depending on the conditions” need to reply stating if
the conditions described here are OK for them.

Once we know, how many contributors do not approve, someone needs to
decide, if the relicensing makes sense. First of all, Michael will
probably have to agree to replace the parts of non-approving
contributors. How the final decision is then made, is for the project
to decide (discussion on ffmpeg-devel?).

To fulfill all requirements by sponsors regarding invoices and to not
have everyone split their payments, my company will act as a trustee
for a part of the money (11075 Euro) and collect it from the other
sponsors and then split it up to pay to SPI and the individual
developers except Michael who will receive his part directly from one
sponsor as the amount happens to be a perfect match. We have not found
an easier way to achieve this because of tax and VAT regulations (my
initial suggestion was to have Michael serve as the trustee).

If someone disagrees with the way the money is split, please speak up
now. I tried to fulfill the following goals:
- Reflect the fact that yadif is mostly Michael's code and work
- Make sure the project as a whole benefits significantly (IMHO, since
Michael's working on FFmpeg full-time, I think one has to count his
share as the project's benefit as well)
- Fulfill conditions by individual contributors with larger contributions
- Keep it simple
- Make it as fair as possible

The last point is of course never really possible and don't bash me
for misjudging the individual contributions as it is most likely
because I am not qualified enough to differentiate/evaluate them
properly. I just hope everyone looks at this and does not feel treated
too unfairly, thinks it is good for the project and can live with it.
Let me also add that, should we make this too complicated, e.g. by
delaying the whole thing because of endless discussions, there is a
very concrete possibility none of the money will ever reach the
project because sponsors might look for alternatives and make the
whole thing fall apart. It was not easy to get everyone to agree to
such a pragmatic "uncorporate" approach to a thing like this.

I have put all yadif contributors on cc of whom I do not know that
they are subscribed to ffmpeg-devel.

People who have yadif commits (including mplayer before the port to
ffmpeg, ffmpeg and merges from libav) and are asked to agree:

Michael Niedermayer
Baptiste Coudurier
Stefano Sabatini
Mans Rullgard
Aurelien Jacobs
Anton Khirnov
Reimar Döffinger
Luca Barbato
Clément Bœsch
Diego Biurrun
Nicolas George
Carl Eugen Hoyos
Uoti Urpala
Loren Merritt
Tim Woj
Ivan Kalvachev
Joakim Plate
İsmail Dönmez
James Darnley
Daniel Kang
Paul B Mahol

I would be grateful for an independent check of this list.

Regards,

Robert