[FFmpeg-devel] some licensing issues

[Måns Rullgård]

Diego Biurrun wrote:
> I've stumbled across a few more licensing issues/nitpicks:
>
> The following files contain the words "All rights reserved" in the
> licensing header:
>
> libswscale/yuv2rgb.c
> libswscale/yuv2rgb_mlib.c
> libswscale/yuv2rgb_template.c
> libavcodec/alac.c
> libavcodec/armv4l/simple_idct_arm.S
>
> This wording with a subsequent grant of rights through the (L)GPL is
> meaningless, but I'm afraid the term is one that easily raises red flags
> when people stumble across it.  Thus I would like to remove it.

The "All rights reserved" tag is required under one of the many
international copyright conventions (I forget which one) for copyright
in the work to be recognised at all.  However, since a few years, all
signatories of this particular one have also signed the Berne
convention, thus making this requirement moot.

As for "All rights reserved" being present in conjunction with the LGPL,
I see it as an initial (redundant) initialiser, with specific grants
then given by the following text.  Hence, I don't perceive this as an
inconsistency.  Then again, I am not a lawyer...

> The following two header files still lack licensing headers:
>
> libavcodec/rl.h
> libavcodec/xvmc_render.h
>
> I'll add the standard LGPL headers if nobody objects.

Seems reasonable.

> Then we have the files
>
> cws2fws.c
> qt-faststart.c
>
> which are placed in the public domain.  AFAIU the public domain is a
> US-only thing and not internationally applicable.  Mike added the line
> "Use the program however you see fit." to qt-faststart.c, which is
> probably enough to achieve the desired effect, but cws2fws.c does not
> have it.
>
> I'm not sure how best to proceed here.  Adding a one-line statement to
> the effect of what we have in qt-faststart.c seems like the most
> sensible thing to do.

I'd prefer if these files were given an MIT or 2-clause BSD license.
This gives essentially the same rights as "public domain" using a
widely recognised phrasing.

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