[Rhythmbox-devel] Rhythmbox and our new MP3 plugin

[Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller <christian fluendo com>]

Sent this during Christmas, but it seems it never got through, so I am
trying again.

Hi,
We (fluendo) released our MP3
plugin this Christmas (http://www.fluendo.com/resources/fluendo_mp3.php) which we expect
to get shipped by many Linux distributions. The problem is that this
plugin is not GPL compatible as it is using patent rights we don't have the
rights to pass on the way the GPL demands.

So I am mailing you now to discuss relicensing Rhythmbox like we did with
Totem so time ago to allow non-GPL compatible plugins to be shipped with
Rhythmbox. I discussed this issue with Colin some time ago, but he wasn't
to keen on doing it before we had actually come through with releasing
this MP3 plugin.

So I am wondering how the current maintainers and developers feel about
adding a clause to the license like the one in Totem -

"The Totem project hereby grant permission for non-gpl compatible GStreamer
plugins to be used and distributed together with GStreamer and Totem. This
permission are above and beyond the permissions granted by the GPL license
Totem is covered by."

In addition to allowing for this MP3 plugin it makes it possible to
distribute the Monkeys Audio plugin with Rhythmbox and also the
future proprietary plugins of Fluendo (and others)

If people are interested/willing to do this I don't mind helping out with
mailing former contributors etc., but I know that there might also be some
development work needed as one of the former contributors is no longer
with us.

Sincerely,
Christian





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