[MPlayer-dev-eng] Relicensing MPlayer or parts of it to LGPL

[wm4]

On Mon, 28 Dec 2015 18:52:43 +0000 (UTC)
Carl Eugen Hoyos <cehoyos at ag.or.at> wrote:

> wm4 <nfxjfg <at> googlemail.com> writes:
> 
> > To avoid this, I'm thinking of relicensing mpv to LGPL 2.1  
> 
> Complete unrelated to the fact that at least one of the 
> original copyright holders was strongly against such a 
> relicensing:
> Please don't, you cannot ask all authors, we even failed 
> for a single file in FFmpeg.

I'm not sure why you're saying that. It's actually not unusual for
MPlayer code to be relicensed and even moved out to other projects.
This includes:
- libswscale (now LGPL and part of FFmpeg)
- libass (now a separate project under a MIT-like license)
- vf_yadif.c (specifically relicensed to LGPL in FFmpeg because there
  was such a high interest in this filter within FFmpeg)
- all vo_gl.c/OpenGL code was relicensed to dual-licensed GPL + LGPL

I'm merely extending this to the core, and a few sub-components (mostly
some audio/video decoders/outputs/filters, demuxers, stream handlers). I
don't need absolutely everything, as many parts have become unimportant
in mpv. (For example, almost all decoders have been removed in mpv,
because FFmpeg is good enough.)

So can I get permission to relicense your MPlayer contributions to LGPL,
or can I get at least a definitive "no"?

Anyway, I'm continuing my relicensing attempt. I'll post status updates
here:

https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/issues/2033

(This issue is mostly used for relicensing of mpv contributions, but
could serve for general discussion etc. as well.)