[Libav-user] Compiling without --enable-nonfree still produces non-free library?

[Soltic Lucas]

Hello,

I'm currently working on a movie playback library that relies on FFmpeg for decoding. Before I redistribute my library, I wanted to gather some information about the different royalties and licenses terms about the main formats.

What I've found out and understood is that as I am compiling the decoders from the FFmpeg sources, I'm the one responsible for the licenses and fees that may apply to these decoders. As a student I don't want and cannot afford to pay royalties...

But what is actually scaring me is that the patents do not cover a particular decoder, but any decoder that uses the concerned audio/video format specification. Thus the decoders built with FFmpeg source ARE concerned by these patents. Am I right ?


Now I've looked at the audio and video decoders included in my FFmpeg build WITHOUT using --enable-nonfree and I can read that formats like AC3 or MP3 are supported. But both are NOT free (not to mention MPEG-4 and H.264 aka MPEG-4 AVC).

So what's going on? I'm not using --enable-nonfree but the resulting library contains non-free decoders? Am I missing something?

Any explanation would be appreciated,

Thanks,

Lucas SOLTIC
IT student at ESIL, France