Re: [Libcdio-devel] Question about libcdio license

[Brian Cameron]

>  > I notice that libcdio has a GPL license, yet is used by many programs 
>  > that are GPL-based.  For example gstreamer "good" plugins as listed on
>  > your "Projects using GNU libcdio".

Oops, my comment above should have said "I notice that libcdio has a GPL
license, yet is used by many programs that are *LGPL* based.".  Sorry
about that - yet it seems that you understood what I mean by your
response.  :)

>  > Wouldn't it make more sense for the libraries libcio to be LGPL licensed
>  > so that programs like GStreamer can use it without possibly violating
>  > their LGPL licenses?
>
> Having GStreamer change its license to GPL would work just as well. In
> fact some might argue that's a better way to rectify things. :-)

I guess it depends on your viewpoint.  :)

That said, Sun has a policy that they cannot ship GPL'ed libraries.  So,
normally what we do in such situations is statically link the library
into whatever GPL'ed programs use it.

However, in this case, I don't think this is possible.  We originally
included libcdio in order to make sound-juicer (and other GStreamer
based programs) work with CD devices.  Since our only usage of libcdio
is to link it into another library, statically linking is not a solution
we can use.

Perhaps we can modify sound-juicer to access libcdio directly rather
than using it via GStreamer and then we could statically link the
library, or perhaps we will need to remove libcdio from Solaris and
write a new GStreamer plugin that uses native functions directly, or
perhaps we need to find a different solution for interacting with CD
devices.  *sigh*

Any advice people may have about how to work around this issue would
be helpful.

We were somewhat misled that libcdio was LGPL because the libcdio
GStreamer plugin was included in gst-plugins-good, which is not
supposed to contain any plugins that have these sorts of issues.
GStreamer plugins that depend on GPL'ed libraries are supposed to
exist in gst-plugins-ugly.  I filed the following GStreamer bug
asking the GStreamer team to move the plugin to gst-plugins-ugly
where it probably belongs as long as it is under a GPL license:

  http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=413705

This way, most distributions will not include the plugin by accident,
unless they really want to ship a GPL'ed plugin with LGPL'ed GStreamer.

> Folks who started libcdio and who have contributed have done so under
> the assumption and understanding it is GPL, not LGPL. It was
> registered with FSF as GPL. I am not aware of any sort of desire let
> alone consensus to change the license. Of course, if I'm wrong I guess
> folks will chime in here.

I think it is worth discussion.  It doesn't seem to make a lot of sense
to GPL a library that allows interaction with devices like CD's.  This
is a common function and only allowing GPL'ed programs to access the
device seems overly restrictive.

>  > Please cc: me on any responses since I am not on this mail alias.
>
> Done. But if there is further discussion you might want to check back
> with the mailing list or join it. (It really doesn't generate that
> much email traffic.)

I am now on the mail alias so I can follow the thread.  Thanks.

Brian