[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: avifile



/* quoted in full so this gets on the write list */

On Sun, Sep 17, 2000 at 04:27:13PM +0200, Josip Rodin wrote:
> Hi ppl,
> 
> Has anyone taken a look at packaging avifile, the X/QT AVI player, available
> from http://divx.euro.ru/ ? I've been using it recently, and I could package
> it easily, but its licensing situation is a bit deranged :)
> 
> Quoting doc/LICENSING from the source:
> 
>    The most obvious problem is the fact that library uses closed-source
>   Win32 DLLs. It can be considered to be 'creating derived work' by
>   including these DLLs into GPL'ed code. In other words, library may
>   seem to be 'linked' with these proprietary binaries. That's actually
>   a fringe case - the strict definition of 'linking' does not exist yet.
>   I prefer to think of the DLLs as 'plug-ins', which are separate from
>   main library and voluntary to use. That's why I distribute binaries and
>   sources in different packages - you do not need binaries to compile library
>   and even to run some test programs. One can someday rewrite DLLs using C/C++
>   and thus make AVIFile library completely platform independent.
> 
>    The DLLs themself are freeware - you can easily get them from lots of
>   other places. Their licenses typically do not say anything explicitly
>   about this way of using them. I believe there's nothing wrong in it.
> 
>    This project includes GSM 6.1 audio decoder, which is taken from XAnim.
>   XAnim is licensed as 'free for non-commercial use' - not compatible with
>   (L)GPL. That part needs to be rewritten to resolve this issue.
> 
> The situation with DLLs would require putting avifile packages in contrib, I
> think, because although they're not formally linked, you get little or no
> functionality from avifile without them.
> 
> The last paragraph clearly makes it impossible for us to legally distribute
> avifile, it's like the old KDE/QT1 mess. Does anyone volunteer for rewriting
> this? :)

I'll rewrite it if the author is willing to have it rewritten.  I don't
want to waste my time with it if the author is going to reject the changes
because they came from Debian or because they're not necessary or whatever
the hell else that I've already heard a million times.

> -- 
> Digital Electronic Being Intended for Assassination and Nullification

... found the cyborger eh?

-- 
Joseph Carter <knghtbrd@debian.org>               GnuPG key 1024D/DCF9DAB3
Debian GNU/Linux (http://www.debian.org/)         20F6 2261 F185 7A3E 79FC
The QuakeForge Project (http://quakeforge.net/)   44F9 8FF7 D7A3 DCF9 DAB3

<Culus> "Hello?"  "Hi baybee"  "Are you Johnie Ingram?"  "For you I'll be
        anyone" "Ermm.. Do you sell slink CD's?" "I love slinkies"



Reply to: