[Libav-user] Getting to grips with ffmpeg

[Carl Eugen Hoyos]

John Dexter <jdxsolutions at ...> writes:

> obviously I have no problem providing source if asked to, 

You misunderstand:
If you don't want to "accompany" your binary distribution with the 
corresponding source code, you have to add a legally binding written 
offer that you will provide the source code on request.
This may have been useful at a time when there was no internet 
but expensive discs, to save you from that burden nowadays, 
we recommend you to ...

> and in putting the license in my redistributable.

> I read somewhere that including a link to where users could download
> the source themselves can be counted as "distributing the source"?

... do exactly this as explained on http://ffmpeg.org/legal.html
(because we think you can argue that the corresponding sources 
"accompany" the binary distribution both if you distribute 
them together in the same installation package and also if you 
provide the sources as a separate link next to the download link 
for your installer. If you don't trust me on this because you 
interpret "accompany" differently then you will have to add the source 
code to the installer, remember I am not a native speaker.)

> I was very surprised by claims it's a requirement, simply because none
> of the LGPL libraries I've used have ever mentioned it in the case of
> dynamic linking.

Please read
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#UnchangedJustBinary
and for the sake of our discussion assume that it was written 
by the very same person who wrote the license.

Carl Eugen