[haiku-development] Re: alpha release window ?

  • From: Stephan Assmus <superstippi@xxxxxx>
  • To: haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:24:46 +0200

Hi,

On 2009-08-07 at 16:48:45 [+0200], François Revol <revol@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On 2009-08-07 at 15:53:30 [+0200], Ithamar R. Adema 
> > <ithamar.adema@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > Stephan Assmus wrote:
> > > > I can quickly disable AC-3 encoding, but most likely, the MPEG4 
> > > > encoding is ok to leave on? Can someone comment on that? To disable
> > > > codecs, just comment them out in the respective
> > > > src/add-ons/media/plugins/ffmpeg/*Table.cpp file(s).
> > > >
> > > I guess fmmpeg itself might be a good source for this information, 
> > > IIRC
> > > they even have a configure switch which disables the "cumbersome" 
> > > ones in
> > > their implementation....
> > >
> > > (I'm afraid even MPEG4 has licensing/patent issues, but IANAL....)
> >
> > Thanks for the pointers. FFmpeg configure indeed has this option:
> >
> >   --enable-nonfree         allow use of nonfree code, the resulting
> > libs
> >                            and binaries will be unredistributable
> > [no]
> 
> This has nothing to do with patent encumbered stuff, but things that 
> infringe on the GPL when distributed.
> So only licence stuff.

Correct. Sorry for the noise!

> cf. http://ffmpeg.org/legal.html
> 
> Most ffmpeg devs just don't care about software patents, they are an 
> abomination that should stay out of europe and die in the US & elsewhere.
> 
> Software is speech.

Amen to that but of course we have to do what's best for us in the current 
reality.

As far as that goes, I have checked the FFmpeg plugin again with regards to 
our use of GPL code, and I was mistaken about libswsscale. It is LGPL by 
default, and you can enable some ASM optimizations that are GPL. We do not 
do that as per our config.h "CONFIG_GPL = 0", I have double checked to make 
sure. We were compiling two other ASM files in connection with H.264 which 
are GPL and are specifically mentioned in the README, but I could disable 
them without problems, as they do not seem to be used or crucial. Also, the 
AC-3 and EAC-3 decoder used GPL code and have been disabled. (We were not 
using them, since we have another AC-3 decoder in the tree.)

Bottomline: Our FFmpeg plugin is LGPL as is now.

The second question is about enabling MPEG1/2/4 video and AC-3 audio 
encoding. As far has I have read on the Internet on the subject, the MPEG 
people only go after collecting their license fee if you are making money 
from MPEG technology. Of course this is perhaps not something we should 
rely on. Obviously disabling any decent video or audio codecs makes the 
whole encoding thing quite useless. If we decide to do this anyways, we 
need prominent instructions on the User Guide where to download the useful 
stuff. 

Would would be really cool is if someone wrote an OGG Writer and Vorbis and 
Theora Encoders. The (Reader+Decoder) stuff in our tree is really old, and 
one even doesn't want to use the last Theora release, but the hot stuff 
from SVN instead to get a really capable video encoder.

Best regards,
-Stephan

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