[FFmpeg-devel] some licensing issues

[Michael Niedermayer]

Hi

On Thu, Jul 12, 2007 at 02:27:15AM +0200, Diego Biurrun wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 10, 2007 at 02:41:43PM +0200, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
> > 
> > On Tue, Jul 10, 2007 at 12:01:02PM +0200, Diego Biurrun wrote:
> > > On Mon, Jul 09, 2007 at 04:18:25PM +0100, M?ns Rullg?rd wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > 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...
> > > 
> > > That's interesting to hear.
> > > 
> > > I'm still of the opinion that our license headers should be complete
> > > consistent and as identical as possible so as not to create confusion or
> > > doubt.  Thus I'll remove this text from the few headers where we have it
> > > unless somebody objects.
> > 
> > as i said, you should ask the authors before changing the license
> > headers, likely they will be fine with the change but if not you will not
> > change them
> > 
> > iam cc-ing this to walken
> 
> I've just committed the changes to the libavcodec headers, but rereading
> what you wrote above I may have misinterpreted your statement.  Did you
> mean (just) the headers originating from mpeg2dec or the ones in
> libavcodec as well?

IANAL so i do not know what we can change without the authors agreement.
personally i would have left all license headers as is, and never ever
changed them, no address of the FSF or anything unless it was explicitly
allowed by the license ("or later version" clause)

you seem to like cleaning the licenses up and i dont mind if its ok to do

i just dont know if its ok as IANAL. if i try to compare this to real paper
contracts then i have a very bad feeling though

[...]
-- 
Michael     GnuPG fingerprint: 9FF2128B147EF6730BADF133611EC787040B0FAB

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad
people will find a way around the laws. -- Plato
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