[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] configure: unmark FDKAAC as nonfree

[rcombs]

Red Hat legal believes the FDK license to be free when using their stripped
version (https://github.com/UnitedRPMs/fdk-aac-free/releases), as the patent
clause is a no-op now that the relevant patents on that version are expired:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1501522

Plex legal believes that the license is GPL-compatible in general:
> I see no issue under GPL here. The reference to patent licenses is advisory
> and not a limitation on use. In essence, it says, "you can get a license here
> if you want one [implicitly, if you don't, you are at your peril], but you
> may not need one because most Android hardware makers already have one that
> covers you."

There remains some disagreement over which (if any) versions of the FDK SDK
are GPL-compatible, but I see no reason for ffmpeg to assert the position that
builds linking to it and to GPL code are nonredistributable. The source is
available under a license widely understood to fulfill some definition of
"free", and the contention around it largely comes down to a technicality.
If a user or packager wants to redistribute builds with it at their own risk,
I don't believe doing so would cause harm to ffmpeg's developers or community
(in contrast with closed-source libraries like NDI and Decklink).
---
 configure | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/configure b/configure
index ab761c7183..f590f30093 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -1727,7 +1727,6 @@ EXTERNAL_LIBRARY_GPL_LIST="
 
 EXTERNAL_LIBRARY_NONFREE_LIST="
     decklink
-    libfdk_aac
     openssl
     libtls
 "
@@ -1768,6 +1767,7 @@ EXTERNAL_LIBRARY_LIST="
     libdav1d
     libdc1394
     libdrm
+    libfdk_aac
     libflite
     libfontconfig
     libfreetype
-- 
2.24.1