[FFmpeg-devel] GPL version matter

[Uoti Urpala]

On Sun, 2007-07-01 at 13:17 +0200, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
> you are assuming here that a ffmpeg under GPL3 is distributeable to begin
> with, iam not so sure here, the GPL3 is a scary complex document
> which at least makes non personal use of multimedia software practically
> impossible, that is your choice is between violating the GPL or going to
> court with MPEG-LA about their dubios patent claims
> due to that i likely will never accept GPL3(+) submissions

I think your interpretation of the license is incorrect. I see no such
requirements in the license, and the FSF would not want to create such a
situation. They certainly know that in practice it's impossible to write
any nontrivial code without having it covered by several software
patents (even if in most areas other than multimedia the risk of someone
actively abusing the patents and starting litigation is lower).