[Libav-user] Getting to grips with ffmpeg

[John Dexter]

On 5 February 2012 18:27, Carl Eugen Hoyos <cehoyos at ag.or.at> wrote:
>
> John Dexter <jdxsolutions at ...> writes:
>
> > (Or in other words: It will only affect you if you want H264 encoding
> > but are not willing to buy a commercial x264 license.)
> >
> > Sorry, I need to ask about that in more detail after more thought.
> > There are 2 separate issues here it seems...
> >
> >
> > Whether I can use ffmpeg libraries to encode H264 without making my
> > entire application GPL?
> >
> > Whether I need to pay for a H264 license
>
> > Is the situation I can use ffmpeg L-GPL if I pay for a H264 license,
> > but without buying that license I can only use H264 for full GPL?
> > Or am I totally misunderstanding the situation?
>
> The situation is that if you link your application against a GPL'd
> library (or against libavcodec linking against a GPL'd library)
> then your application gets GPL'd itself (or you are not complying
> with the GPL, making you a copyright violator).
>
> The LGPL allows you to link against non-free object files as long
> as you follow some restrictions - see http://ffmpeg.org/legal.html
> - so if your H264 encoding library is *not* licensed under the GPL
> (but a proprietary or "commercial" license) there should be no
> problem.

OK that is clearer - I missed that x264 was GPL and thought H264 was
special some way. The rules about how using any GPL code makes my
whole app GPL are clear. I'll look into this more and start a new
discussion on specifics if needed.

>
> The remaining questions are certainly not within the scope of
> this mailing list, please visit http://x264licensing.com/

Thanks for the link.

>
> Please set your mailer to "plain text" instead of html, Carl Eugen

Is that a list rule? And, does _this_ mail conform? If so I'll try to
remember in future.

Thanks!