[FFmpeg-devel] [Patch] Enable gpl if enabled nonfree

[Aurelien Jacobs]

On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:19:20 +0100
Diego Biurrun <diego at biurrun.de> wrote:

> On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 05:17:35PM +0000, Robert Swain wrote:
> > 2009/1/18 Diego Biurrun <diego at biurrun.de>:
> > > On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 05:12:36PM +0000, Carl Eugen Hoyos wrote:
> > >> Diego Biurrun <diego <at> biurrun.de> writes:
> > >>
> > >> > Of course the nonfree
> > >> > option is incompatible with everything and the resulting binary is
> > >> > nonredistributable.
> > >>
> > >> "Of course" for us, but as I always expected and was shown to us today, not for
> > >> everybody.
> > >
> > > I still suspect PEBCAK because configure prints out:
> > >
> > > license: unredistributable
> > >
> > > at the end even when combining both options...
> > 
> > True. But maybe people do `./configure --OPTIONS && make && make
> > install` and don't notice the output from configure. If no other
> > license related options were allowed in conjunction with
> > --enable-nonfree, it may make the license status more apparent.
> 
> Still it might make sense to just enable nonfree code without GPL code.

Any example ?
As long as you enable nonfree, your binary is unredistributable.
The GPL covers only distribution of the software, so the GPL
has no sens at all regarding the unredistributable binary.

IMO, the purpose of --enable-gpl and --enable-nonfree is not
to select what part of the code is compiled. The purpose
is to select which options can be enabled or not.
eg. --enable-swscale can't be used in a pure LGPL compile,
but it can be used in a GPL compile and it should also
be possible to use in a nonfree compile, because the
license of swscale allows it to be compiled in non-redistributable
binaries (wheather you agree with the GPL or not).

IOW, --enable-nonfree should really be a super-set of --enable-gpl
because our nonfree "pseudo-license" allows inclusion of GPLed code.
(just the same as --enable-gpl is a super-set of lgpl mode because
GPL allows inclusion of LGPLed code)

Aurel