Re: [Mingw-cross-env-list] Binaries using ffmpeg unredistributable

[Tony Theodore]

On 7 December 2010 20:16, Volker Grabsch <address@hidden> wrote:
> Martin Lambers <address@hidden> schrieb:
>> It may be a good idea to remove at least --enable-nonfree, and I
>> personally think that --enable-gpl and --enable-version3 should also be
>> removed. Packages that want these features may add them locally, and all
>> others are on the safe side.
>
> I fully agree, because ffmpeg is not a pure GPL-library. So I disabled
> those three options:

Static linking is a grey area, but the ffmpeg developers (among
others) seem to consider it a violation of the LGPL [1]. I hate
licence discussions, but I think the developers wishes trump the
technicalities. By disabling the GPL options, we risk lulling users
into a false sense of compliance. If anyone uses ffmpeg from
mingw-cross-env, they will have to meet the requirements of the full
GPL - so we might as well leave those options enabled. The most we
could (should?) do is some sort of warning and documentation, but
that's probably a different discussion.

I agree that we should use --disable-nonfree though - for much the
same reasons, the least surprising thing.

Cheers,

Tony


[1] Point 2, License Compliance Checklist - http://ffmpeg.org/legal.html