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

Alex Converse alex.converse
Wed Dec 8 18:10:15 CET 2010


On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 7:05 AM, Ronald S. Bultje <rsbultje at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.

No the libfaac terms mean it cannot be legally linked to *itself*. As
far as I can tell there are no terms that would make it ineligible for
combination under section 5 and licensing the FFmpeg parts under
section 6.

>
> 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.
>

s/purchase/acquire/

> 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.
>

Assuming we are talking about using the section 6 permissions in both
cases, I agree with Ronald's interpretation.

Regards,

Alex



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