[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH 1/5] configure: Add an explicit check and option for nvcc

[Soft Works]

> From a technical standpoint, this whole series looks fine to me.
>
> However, it really does not fell non-nonfree to me that the only way to
> build these filters remains to register with nvidia, accept their
> various EULAs and download their SDK for nvcc and the libs around it.
>
> Even moving them out of ffmpeg and loading them at runtime (which would
> be a major ABI, API and usability break) does not solve that.
> You still need to either get said SDK and build them yourself, or get
> someone else to do it an run into the same issue with redistributability
> there.

I would suggest to have both options:

1. Compiling it as part of ffmpeg with option non-free
2. Compiling without non-free option and loading the kernels
   from a file

For the latter case:

It's an external and separate executable. It is not a violation of
the GPL if ffmpeg checks for existence and executes that in a separate
process.

When you need to distribute pre-compiled ffmpeg versions, then
it's not a matter of usability. It's rather about whether there's
a way to use it or not. :-)

---
softworkz