[FFmpeg-devel] Searching for a ffmpeg BCLO (bastard chief legal officer)

[Diego Biurrun]

On Thu, Mar 06, 2008 at 01:00:29AM -0500, Chris Ribe wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 25, 2008 at 8:05 AM, Michael Niedermayer <michaelni at gmx.at>
> wrote:
> 
> > The number of LGPL and GPL license violations increases, we already have 6
> > on roundup.
> > I first thought ill try to contact them but i guess it would be more
> > efficient if someone else could do that and i could concentrate on
> > developing which id also prefer :)
> >
> > So what are the requirements for the BCLO:
> > * Short temper (not the kind type of guy who nicely talks with them for
> >  3 month)
> > * legal knowlegde (you dont have to be a lawyer but you should know
> >  the (L)GPL and have an approximate idea of copyright law)
> > * ability to read C code, use strings and grep
> > * ability to use traceroute and the others to find the ISP, domain name
> >  provider, ... of a company
> >
> > Things which would be nice
> > * some good contacts to online sites/local radio/newspapers which might
> >  be interrested in publishing an article about such copyright violation
> > * actually being a lawyer
> >
> >
> > Payment
> > none from us but if a company pays us something due to a license/copyright
> > violation it certainly would be acceptable if some part of that would be
> > given to you, maybe 30% or so, rest would go to the ffmpeg project ...
> > But then this also opens the donations tax problems box, so someone would
> > have to solve that first ...
> 
> I am interested in this position, and am interested in assisting Diego if
> the position has become his.  I meet all of the requirements and would be
> able to fulfill many of the duties as part of my day job.  I am an IT
> Engineer for a TV station, and have put ffmpeg to work extensively within
> our station.
> 
> A significant portion of my job involves putting together transcoding
> workflows, and I am keen to stay up to date with the offerings of the
> commercial A/V codec marketplace (and keener still to see the whole of them
> replaced by OSS solutions).  I regularly deal with the companies selling
> transcoding products to the broadcast industry.
> 
> As for payment, I would request only that the developers turn a kind ear to
> my ffmpeg related questions, and that 30% of recovered monies be placed in a
> "Pro A/V bounty fund" for furthering ffmpeg support of professional A/V
> codecs and formats, whose targets I would define.
> 
> I have long wished to contribute to either ffmpeg or my other favorite
> libavcodec based projects, mplayer and mythtv, but have lacked a clear way
> to apply my bash-hacking and email-composing skills to its benefit.  I hope
> I have found one.

Thanks for the offer.  I'll keep you posted about the outcome of my
talks with the SFLC.

Diego