[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH 1/2] avcodec/nvenc: Include NVENC SDK header

[Hendrik Leppkes]

On Wed, Dec 9, 2015 at 3:14 PM, Carl Eugen Hoyos <cehoyos at ag.or.at> wrote:
> Hi!
>
> On Monday 07 December 2015 07:37:21 pm Timo Rothenpieler wrote:
>> > On Monday 07 December 2015 03:14:08 pm Timo Rothenpieler wrote:
>> >> Nvidia finaly decided to put a propper MIT license on their nvenc
>> >> header, so it can be included, removing any external dependencies for
>> >> nvenc and making it no longer require the non-free flag.
>> >
>> > Please do not apply (yet)!
>> >
>> >> +NVENCSTATUS NVENCAPI NvEncodeAPICreateInstance()
>> >
>> > What is the license of the library that implements this symbol?
>> >
>> > Imo, it is not ok to simply circumvent a license issue by dynamic
>> > loading the library. If it were that simple, it would indicate that
>> > our software license can be circumvented just as easily but we were
>> > quite strict (and successful) about this as long as we were able to
>> > pursue license violators.
>> >
>> > Note that we haven't allowed this for libfaac.
>> >
>> > What are the steps to install this encoder library? Is it part of the
>> > Nvidia binary video driver that I use for VDPAU on Linux? Is it part
>> > of every Nvidia graphics driver on Windows?
>>
>> It comes with the binary nvidia driver on both Windows and Linux.
>
>> Should fall under the system library stuff the GPL defines.
>
> I may misunderstand (I am not a native speaker) but the word
> "should" imo indicates that you cannot commit your patch.
>

The header is licensed rather liberally and doesn't actually link
against anything, I don't see it violating any licensing concerns.
With other libraries where people would like to use such reasons, the
headers are usually also license restricted, which results in quite a
different situation.

If the header should be part of FFmpeg is just a question of if we
want it here, the license does not prevent it.
If we decide not to commit this patch, an alternative patch should be
pushed which removes the non-free requirement and updates the header
version requirement.

- Hendrik