[MPlayer-DOCS] CVS: homepage/src projects.src.en,1.94,1.95

[The Wanderer]

Diego Biurrun wrote:

> Gabucino writes:
> 
>> Diego Biurrun wrote:
>> 
>>> Yes, this is a quote from the QuickView Pro license.  What
>>> exactly is your point, please?  Which portion of what you quoted
>>> above warrants keeping QuickView Pro blacklisted and for what
>>> reason?
>>> 
>>> I've done my homework, now please do yours.
>> 
>> Ad 1:
>> Because QuickView 1 decodes Indeo files with official Indeo codecs
>> licensed from Intel. QV 1 contains this un-REable license clause,
>> and just because this clause disappeared from QV 2's license is
>> worlds far from being enough proof.

> What exactly is your point here?  A license is not something you can
> believe in.  Whatever the license says is fact, pure and simple.  Am
> I supposed to doubt that the program contains FFmpeg code although
> the copyright notices state it?  Am I supposed to believe the
> prohibition of reverse engineering is still present when it has
> clearly been removed from the license text?

I think what he meant was "just because a license does not explicitly
forbid reverse engineering does not mean that it does not forbid reverse
engineering". In this case, if the laws by which the license says it is
governed forbid reverse engineering - which is not a subject on which I
am qualified to speak - then even if the license itself makes no direct
mention of the subject, it still forbids reverse engineering just as
effectively as before.

IOW, "just look at the license text" (to quote a bit I snipped) is not
by itself necessarily a sufficient test.

>> Can you positively confirm that QV doesn't infringe anymore? Even a
>> confirmation email from QV's author would be far from enough, and
>> I guess you don't even have that.
> 
> Guess what, you guess wrong.  I received a mail from Wolfgang
> Hesseler, the QuickView Pro author, informing me that the QuickView
> Pro license no longer forbids reverse engineering.  I have sent this
> mail to mplayer-legal.

...well, I guess that's what I get for not reading the entire mail
before I write my reply...

-- 
       The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

A government exists to serve its citizens, not to control them.