[FFmpeg-user] GPL implications of ffmpeg in the browser

[Carl Eugen Hoyos]

Tom Grant <thomas.aw.grant <at> gmail.com> writes:

> The question stands with LGPL or GPL.

The situation would be very different.

> Can I use a browser-based version of ffmpeg without 
> having to release my whole project as open-source?

Are you distributing binaries based on FFmpeg source code?
How does your own code use the binaries code based on 
FFmpeg source code? Is there only one binary based on both 
your own code and FFmpeg?

> Maybe I am not understanding this correctly, but I would 
> need to include libx264 in the distribution to encode 
> videos to that format right?

Not necessarily (you could use another encoder) but my 
point was that you didn't tell us you would use x264.

> And doing so would apply the GPL to the entirety of 
> ffmpeg (which might apply the GPL to my whole project).

Of course, this is how the GPL works.
You just had not mentioned x264 (and from a very quick 
look it wasn't mentioned on the page you linked).

If you find a commercial alternative to FFmpeg, please 
don't forget to tell us about it;-)

Please do not top-post here, it is considered rude.

Carl Eugen