[Ffmpeg-cvslog] [ffmpeg.org]: r40 - trunk/src/legal

[Michel Bardiaux]

Diego Biurrun wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 25, 2006 at 04:15:43PM +0200, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
>> On Fri, Aug 25, 2006 at 03:45:19PM +0200, diego wrote:
>>> Log:
>>> Mention that libswscale is GPL as well.
>>> Clarify that the LGPL does not only apply to the libs contained in FFmpeg.
>>>
>>> --- trunk/src/legal	(original)
>>> +++ trunk/src/legal	Fri Aug 25 15:45:19 2006
>>> @@ -14,16 +14,17 @@
>>>  
>>>  <H3>FFmpeg License</H3>
>>>  FFmpeg is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License, or LGPL.
>>> -Essentially, this means that you are allowed to use the FFmpeg library in
>>> +Essentially, this means that you are allowed to use parts of FFmpeg in
>>>  your own application, regardless of your application's license. However, if
>> the LGPL allows applications to link at runtime to LGPL code or it allows
>> linking at compiletime if and only if either the whole source code of the
>> application or object files is provided so the user can relink the 
>> application with a more recent version of the library
>>
>> what you wrote sounds like the user could copy and paste parts at will into
>> his propriatery code
> 
> Hmm, yes, it's not particularly clear.
> 
> I talked to somebody on IRC in #ffmpeg earlier today.  He was confused
> about the license of ffmpeg.exe and similar since the website and the
> LGPL keep talking about "library".  My intention was to clarify that.
> 
> Thinking about it, it's probably not a good idea to give a short and
> sweet explanation of the LGPL on this page, it seems to be destined to
> fail.

Not suprprising. After all, even with the full text of the GPL and all 
the exegesis from the FSF and other places, there is *still* no general 
agreement, not to mention legallly or judicially supported, about what 
exactly makes a program a derivative!

Greetings,
-- 
Michel Bardiaux
R&D Director
T +32 [0] 2 790 29 41
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