Bug#515850: RFP: mjpegtools - MJPEG video capture/editting/playback MPEG encoding
The following message is a courtesy copy of an article
that has been posted to gmane.linux.debian.devel.general as well.
[ CC'ed ftp-master, please see below ]
José Manuel Santamaría Lema <panfaust@gmail.com> writes:
> It should be great if someone can package this tools for debian, a software
> which I'm packaging depend on this tools.
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=467228
are you willing to package it under the pkg-multimedia umbrella?
> Its already packaged in ubuntu multiverse:
> http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/mjpegtools
>
> There is also a version in debian-multimedia:
> http://debian-multimedia.org/dists/unstable/main/binary-i386/package/mjpegtools.php
Sure, ubuntu has imported some packages from marillat, including
mjpegtools.
> I don't understand why mjpegtools is in ubuntu multiverse because as
> far as I know, ubuntu multiverse is non-free software, but mjpegtools
> seems to be free software as its dependencies.
The debian/copyright file is close to useless. You need to inspect the
source manually to get an idea of its legal status.
>From mpeg2enc/mpeg2coder.cc (but there are many similar comments in mpeg2enc/*.cc):
/*
* Disclaimer of Warranty
*
* These software programs are available to the user without any license fee or
* royalty on an "as is" basis. The MPEG Software Simulation Group disclaims
* any and all warranties, whether express, implied, or statuary, including any
* implied warranties or merchantability or of fitness for a particular
* purpose. In no event shall the copyright-holder be liable for any
* incidental, punitive, or consequential damages of any kind whatsoever
* arising from the use of these programs.
*
* This disclaimer of warranty extends to the user of these programs and user's
* customers, employees, agents, transferees, successors, and assigns.
*
* The MPEG Software Simulation Group does not represent or warrant that the
* programs furnished hereunder are free of infringement of any third-party
* patents.
*
* Commercial implementations of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video, including shareware,
* are subject to royalty fees to patent holders. Many of these patents are
* general enough such that they are unavoidable regardless of implementation
* design.
*
*/
One can now argue what "commercial implementation" actually means. I'm
still waiting for ftp-master to comment on this, but AFAIUI, I don't see
why debian wouldn't be able to ship the binaries of mjpegtools, lame and
similar free software in non-free.
non-free as a convenience for users[1], that build assemble and sell
pre-installed and pre-configured devices running debian.
[1] http://debian.org/distrib/pre-installed
ftp-master, can you please comment on adding this kind software to
non-free?
--
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4
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