[FFmpeg-user] The Guild

[David Niklas]

On Thu, 1 Feb 2024 14:49:50 -0500
Mark Filipak <markfilipak.imdb at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 01/02/2024 14.41, Carl Zwanzig wrote:
> > On 2/1/2024 11:26 AM, Mark Filipak wrote:
> >>
> >> There needs to be an FFmpeg Guild and there needs to be an FFmpeg
> >> industry. You guys/gals need to >> make a living. How can we make
> >> that happen?
> > > Why does there need to be a "guild"?
>
> Because FFmpeg developers need to make a living.
>
> > If you want one, start one.
>
> I'm not an FFmpeg developer.
>
> >> Second, a cloud-based book that people buy. It would have to have a
> >> reader that people buy. The >> reader would read an encrypted cloud,
> >> would be read-only, would resist host >>
> >> probing/capture/screenshots, and would save _nothing_ locally.
> > > Again, why? (And of course a book would have a copyright, but that
> > > has little to do with how > distribution is licensed.) You do not
> > > seem to understand open-source projects at all.
>
> The book and the reader and the private forum would have everything to
> do with FFmpeg but nothing to do with FFmpeg legally.
>
> If FFmpeg is to continue to be free and open source, there needs to be
> a for-profit business attached to FFmpeg. I will contribute to the book
> for free. I will donate pages that I already have and will donate more.
> I'm retired. I already have a guaranteed income.
>
> --Mark.
>
>

Just in case everyone forgot, Richard Stallmen, who founded the GNU
foundation, got kicked from his own foundation not too long ago.

Likewise, the Mozilla foundation's leader was also forced to step
down. And that was just before the amount of features in the browser and
the amount of memory it consumed increased.

So although I agree that ffmpeg's, and a few other FLOSS-s', devs could
really use a financial backing, I'm hesitant to recommend it for any
FLOSS project.

Sincerely,
David