[FFmpeg-cvslog] r9601 - trunk/libavcodec/mpegidct.c

[Måns Rullgård]

Michael Niedermayer <michaelni at gmx.at> writes:

[MPEG license]

>> >>>>> This is clearly non-free.  What were you thinking ?!?
>> >>>> My mistake. I thought it is public domain.
>> >>> At least 2 other GPL project use same routine and have same header in it.
>> >>> http://cvs.xvid.org/cvs/viewvc.cgi/xvidcore/src/dct/idct.c?view=log
>> >> Which one is the second?
>> > 
>> > libmpeg2 has a file which seems derived from it, some comments are identical
>> > if you ignore whitespace
>> > it has walken as author and GPL header ...
>> > 
>> > mpeg4ip has it with MPL license header
>> > 
>> > iam sure you can find more if you try ...
>> > 
>> > could someone explain me the reasons behind this overreaction?
>> > it doesnt seem other projects share your interpretation of the license
>> > 
>> > [...]
>> 
>> Well it is a poorly worded license.  It says "All Rights Reserved" and 
>> then does not proceed to grant any other rights other than the right to 
>> accept the code from the MPEG Group and to use it "as-is", but not to 
>> modify it or distribute it to others.  That's how I interpret it anyway.
>
> true, iam not disagreeing though i do not think this is the intent of the
> authors ...

That was exactly the intent of the authors.  Reference code is often
supplied with standards to clarify the meaning in case of
unintentional ambiguities, and to serve as a reference to test your
own code against (hence the term).  It is not meant to be picked up
and distributed, commercially or for free, without a specific license
agreement.

-- 
M?ns Rullg?rd
mans at mansr.com