Re: [Tracker] Can I write a proprietary plug-in to extract meta data from a private file format?

["Lin, Mengdong" <mengdong lin intel com>]

We met this license issue because we want to support OMA DRM. And we hope to write an extractor plug-in to 
handle this DRM file format. 
OMA DRM adds an encryption wrapper outside the original media content. The rich meta data can only be 
extracted after decryption. Unfortunately, the DRM decryption library is proprietary and so the plug-in 
linked against it cannot be GPL. 

In addition, there is a GPL GStreamer extractor plug-in. There may be the same license issue when using it on 
DRM-protected files, because GStreamer plug-ins that support DRM are usually proprietary. So, GPL and 
proprietary components will coexist in the same process.

If tracker-extract and released plug-ins could be re-licensed to LGPL, same as GStreamer, it would be very 
helpful for DRM support. Third-party can support multi-scheme DRM by implementing different proprietary 
plug-ins, without contradiction to GPL.

Thanks & Best Regards
Amanda


-----Original Message-----
From: Martyn Russell [mailto:martyn lanedo com] 
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 4:47 PM
To: Lin, Mengdong; tracker-list; Jürg Billeter
Subject: Re: [Tracker] Can I write a proprietary plug-in to extract meta data from a private file format?

On 01/12/10 01:02, Lin, Mengdong wrote:
> Many thanks for your confirmation! I've forwarded your advice to our legal department and hope we can pass 
> the check.

There was some debate internally after your email about this. It is not 
widely agreed that what I said is accurate. So a legal representative 
would certainly be best to answer this.

The alternative is to re-license tracker-extract to LGPL which the team 
generally agrees with I believe.

Juergbi, can you recall the exact reasons why?

-- 
Regards,
Martyn