[Libav-user] Clarifications about why "--use-nonfree" makes ffmpeg undistributable given the LGPL

[Carlos Alberto Lopez Perez]

On 26/11/12 12:13, Carl Eugen Hoyos wrote:
> Carlos Alberto Lopez Perez <clopez at ...> writes:
> 
>> Then, why is that "--enable-nonfree" makes ffmpeg 
>> unredistributable?
> 
> You mean: "why is libfaac making ffmpeg unreproducible 
> even without x264?"

Not only libfaac:

$ grep "die_license_disabled nonfree" ffmpeg/configure
die_license_disabled nonfree libaacplus
die_license_disabled nonfree libfaac

The Libav fork also disabled some free but gpl-incompatible libraries:
$ grep "die_license_disabled nonfree" libav/configure
die_license_disabled nonfree libfaac
die_license_disabled nonfree libfdk_aac
die_license_disabled nonfree openssl

> Your question is valid, the original idea was to make it 
> more likely to get improvements for the native encoder.
> (Instead, even more proprietary aac encoders are 
> supported now.)
> 
> But note that the native encoder is not as bad for stereo 
> output and the use case of needing aac encoding without 
> h264 encoding is at least not extremely common.
> 

I understand, but I'm not asking about the native aac encoder vs others.

I wish to know why you think that the fact that linking ffmpeg with any
proprietary library (or any free not-gpl compatible library) makes it
unredistributable when the LGPL clearly says that this is allowed.

./configure --enable-nonfree
[...]
License: nonfree and unredistributable

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