[Ffmpeg-devel] moving non-SIMD parts of libswscale to LGPL

[Roine Gustafsson]

On Nov 16, 2006, at 5:15 PM, Michel Bardiaux wrote:
> But what is the rule on how extensive a mod has to be to warrant  
> adding oneself to the copyright list at the top of a source?

That your contribution is covered by copyright. Anything that  
constitutes "a work of height" is awarded copyright protection. Some  
things are specifically not covered, like "mere aggregations" (e.g.  
numbers in a phonebook), aka the database exception.

A patch that fixes an obvious mistake, changes indentation or moves a  
function is likely not covered by copyright. Even trivial files like  
header files or even the raw codec might not be considered covered by  
copyright, however courts tend to lean towards allowing copyright  
protection for grey area cases.

A policy on when to add your own name would be convenient to have,  
like 'modifying more than X lines -or- adding new functionality'  
means adding your name to the top and to the CREDITS file. This would  
lead to dozens of names in every file, but I guess that's the most  
correct way of doing it.

(BTW, I think the database exception rule has led some people here to  
believe that tables are not covered by copyright, which is not  
necessarily true. If the data in the table can be considered a work  
and is not just a "mere aggregation", the table is covered by  
copyright.)

This is based on US copyright law, IANAL, not to be construed as  
legal advice, consult your own lawyer, may cause skin irritation  
after prolonged exposure etc.


   Roine