[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH v2] libavutil: add an FFT & MDCT implementation

[Reimar Döffinger]

On 13.05.2019, at 04:54, Pedro Arthur <bygrandao at gmail.com> wrote:

> Em dom, 12 de mai de 2019 às 18:11, Hendrik Leppkes
> <h.leppkes at gmail.com> escreveu:
>> 
>> On Sun, May 12, 2019 at 11:05 PM Carl Eugen Hoyos <ceffmpeg at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> But seriously: We are of course not allowed to remove copyright
>>> statements, no matter if we consider them relevant or not.
>>> 
>> 
>> Please provide a source for such claims.
> The GPL license included in the header states that.
> 
> GPL2 [1] - "keep intact all the notices that refer to this License"
> GPL3 [2]  - "Requiring preservation of specified reasonable legal
> notices or author attributions in that material"
> MIT [3] (for completeness) - "The above copyright notice and this
> permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial
> portions of the Software."
> 
> [1] - https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html
> [2] - http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
> [3] - https://opensource.org/licenses/MI

Besides the direct legals and ethics of it, please note that it also creates a
serious (even if unlikely) risk to us and our users.
In any kind of legal case, whether to defend against some "copyright troll" or to
enforce the license it might become necessary to find the author of the code.
Not properly taking care of the license and copyright statement side exposes our
users to unnecessary risk and makes it harder to enforce our license.
Even if nothing happens, the work companies have to do to show compliance
(because their customers require it or to reduce their risk) becomes much harder.
Which is why the Linux kernel currently is working on cleaning up their license
header mess.

Best regards,
Reimar Döffinger