[MPlayer-dev-eng] PATCH dynamic link loader for libaf, audio filter package

[Uoti Urpala]

On Fri, 2007-06-15 at 07:49 -0400, Marc Hoffman wrote:
> On 6/15/07, Reimar Doeffinger <Reimar.Doeffinger at stud.uni-karlsruhe.de>
> wrote:
> > Why would someone want this though?
> 
> 
> 1. I need to link at runtime a  module which  can't be integrated with the
> code itself directly due to proprietary IP issues.  As long as Mike and the
> rest of the crew don't get a hold of the so's.

This sounds basically like an attempt to circumvent the GPL. Whether or
not it would actually be legal it might not be something we want to
encourage.

> 2. The functionality which I have been asked to add to mplayer is a bit
> esoteric and specific to SMPTE time codes.  And I have been asked to make my
> work private.

This also sounds potentially questionable. You can agree to develop
GPLed code and not distribute the result without permission, but any
distribution that does happen must be under the terms of the GPL. Does
whatever party you're working for intend to keep the result for private
use? Anyone else but you who receives it gets it under the terms of the
GPL (and even you if you get it back from someone else), and cannot be
asked to keep it private.

> Well I don't want to patch the player thats too complex to do for ever.  So
> I was thinking that this would be a good mechanism to tie the things
> together for a very long time and minimizing costs etc.

I think we do not want to make any kind of API or ABI stability
guarantees for the audio filters. Thus if there is a module interface it
should have some kind of version information to detect incompatible
modules; but so far I'm not convinced there should be a module interface
at all.