[MEncoder-users] FW: Questions about licencing of Mencoder

[Corey Hickey]

RC wrote:
> On Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:09:42 +1000
> Trejkaz <trejkaz at trypticon.org> wrote:
> 
>> To explain that a bit more, it means you can distribute your
>> application  *without* mencoder, and have the user install it
>> separately
> 
> No, it doesn't mean that at all!  The GPL has nothing to do with one
> application running another, or distribution with other closed-source
> apps.  It only applies if you _link_ the two together, or otherwise
> modify the source of the GPL'd program.

If you distribute a GPL program, though, you still have to provide
access to the source code, whether you have modified the program or not.

Here's a big excerpt from:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt

----------------------------------------------------------------------
  3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

    a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
    source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
    1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

    b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
    years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
    cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
    machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
    distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
    customarily used for software interchange; or,

    c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
    to distribute corresponding source code.  (This alternative is
    allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
    received the program in object code or executable form with such
    an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)

The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
making modifications to it.  For an executable work, complete source
code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
control compilation and installation of the executable.  However, as a
special exception, the source code distributed need not include
anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
itself accompanies the executable.

If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

-Corey