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

[Soltic Lucas]

Le 16 avr. 2011 à 23:57, Hendrik Leppkes a écrit :

> Hi,
> 
> On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 10:16 PM, Soltic Lucas <soltic.lucas at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 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?
>> 
> 
> 
> As far as i understand, the nonfree option refers to code that may not
> be distributed in binary form. This does currently only seem to affect
> the libfaac wrapper, because libfaac is based on original ISO MPEG
> reference code, and is therefor not redistributable. AFAIK, it does
> not relate to patents, only to copyright/licenses on the code
> involved.
> 
> - Hendrik

Oh ok, thanks you very much! Maybe the "--enable-nonfree" option should be a bit clearer on this point. When I read it I thought I could freely use every format supported by my "free" build without any patent concern.

Well.. therefore I suppose that if I don't want to have issues with the patent holders, I should disable all of the encoders and decoders by default, and let the end-developer choose which decoder he wants to use. With this way the developer is the only one responsible for the possible license fees.

Lucas