Re: gnome-multimedia digest, Vol 1 #99 - 1 msg

[Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller <Uraeus linuxrising org>]

On Thu, 2003-06-26 at 18:25, Aaron Buckner wrote:
> Christian, 
> 
> Very interesting.  I think moving to the LGPL makes sense,
> theoretically.  However, stating that your goals are to work with
> non-free code might scare some people who read this.
The problem is not 'the code' really, there is free as in GPL, BSD or
LGPL code out there for most of this. The problem is that this code
implements stuff that are covered by patents in the US and other
countries. The owners of these patents has often not made a clear
statement/commitment wether these patents will be upheld or is given
permission to implement in free software which makes any application
supporting then that is under the GPL break its own license.

> Can you give another example?  Some of the benefits we might see by
> implementing a change to the LGPL?  I'm assuming it will be all the
> easier to access Realvideo and WMA content if that change is made?
> 
This change will mean that we will stop violating our own licenses when
we support stuff like mpeg, avi, asf, real, quicktime and so on.
It will also make it legaly possible for our apps to access for instance
a helix plugin that offers access to helix codecs under the helix
community license, which probably is to be considered a free/open source
license even if it is not GPL compatible.

The tragic fact is that applications like Xine, Mplayer or Totem for
that matter, and libraries like mad and ac3dec are violating their own
license making it impossible for distributors that care about respecting
the license of the software they ship to ship them.

Christian

> -a-
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, 2003-06-26 at 12:00, gnome-multimedia-request gnome org wrote:
> > Send gnome-multimedia mailing list submissions to
> > 	gnome-multimedia gnome org
> > 
> > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> > 	http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-multimedia
> > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> > 	gnome-multimedia-request gnome org
> > 
> > You can reach the person managing the list at
> > 	gnome-multimedia-admin gnome org
> > 
> > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> > than "Re: Contents of gnome-multimedia digest..."
> > 
> > 
> > Today's Topics:
> > 
> >    1. GStreamer applications and  change of licensing (Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller)
> > 
> > --__--__--
> > 
> > Message: 1
> > Subject: GStreamer applications and  change of licensing
> > From: Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller <Uraeus linuxrising org>
> > To: gstreamer-devel lists sourceforge net, gnome-multimedia gnome org
> > Date: 25 Jun 2003 23:19:47 +0200
> > 
> > Hi everyone,
> > We did some discussing during GUADEC what it would take to allow people
> > to legally distribute multimedia applications. Some of this discussion
> > we did in the context of Red Hat not shipping mp3 currently. It turns
> > out that one of the major reasons for Red Hat not shipping mp3 support
> > in their distribution is not so much the unclarity of the mp3 licensing
> > terms (altough that is a part of it), but the fact that it is illegal
> > according to the GPL. The GPL clearly states clearly in its section 7
> > and 8 that you can not distribute the application if there is a patent
> > or similar that hinders you to meet all the obligations of the GPL.
> > 
> > This means that for a distribution it is not permitted according to the
> > GPL to link applications to a library that contains patented code.
> > 
> > So what is the solution to this?
> > 
> > Well first of all we want to change the license of all current GStreamer
> > based apps to the LGPL. That would solve the problem of using these
> > applications with non-free code, which code relating to patented stuff
> > unfortunatly are in some cornerns of the world (no matter the licensing
> > of the actuall code in question.)
> > 
> > We will also mail around to the authors of the libraries, that are under
> > the GPL or LGPL, and ask them to add a clause to the license saying that
> > they give an exception for accessing to non-free stuff.
> > 
> > Although you could say that it would be strange if the author of a GPL
> > mp3 decoding library did not want you to be able to use his code to
> > playback mp3 it would be more legally correct if the license actually
> > stated it.
> > 
> > So I hope that all maintainers of GStreamer and GNOME multimedia
> > applications that read this will take steps to relicense their
> > applications under the LGPL if their applications are meant to be used
> > with non-free media formats. Any people who have contributed patches to
> > said applications are also asked to mail the maintainer giving your
> > permission for the relicense (and please do CC the mail to me).
> > 
> > I will try to keep tabs on the relicensing effort and tap maintainers on
> > the shoulders to get it done :)
> > 
> > I know that this move might be seen as controversial by some, and I
> > welcome any discussion of it.
> > 
> > Christian
> >  
-- 
Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller <Uraeus linuxrising org>