[MPlayer-dev-eng] MplayerXP vs Mplayer. Hall of truth.

[D Richard Felker III]

On Mon, Mar 18, 2002 at 09:45:23PM +0300, Nick Kurshev wrote:
> Hello, Gabucino!
> 
> On Sun, 17 Mar 2002 19:50:13 +0100 you wrote:
> 
> > Nick Kurshev didn't RTFM :
> > > > such slow systems (like p1 or old celerons) usually has no xv-capable cards
> > > > but dga or vidix or xmga (1 buffers) could work there fine
> > > Middle size divx4 can be fitted into 2MB of video upto 7 times.
> > It's not only about card, it's about X driver too!
> > 
> I fixed vo_xv upto 10 buffers so version of X11 doesn't matter - you can grow it upto infinity.
> > 
> > > > > Every commercial program can be compiled with GPL'ed shared object.
> > > > LGPLed. not GPLed.
> > > It's disputable question
> > It's not disputable, Arpi is right. This is why LGPL was invented.
> > 
> Disputable - did you hear about int 0x80?
> What does mean the question there is .so files or not?
> If you can watch their names through ldd - it's not a problem.
> (For example mplayerxp already now loads divx4linux through dlopen
> so you are not able to find out that it uses this library without
> depth studing of the sources.
> But communicating with GPL'ed program (kernel) does present always under Linux.
> So it's not a question at all.

It is not disputable, at least as long as you are participating in ANY
activity that involves copying, modifying, or distributing the GPL
code. You may be able to convince a court to let you work around this
is you never touch the GPL code yourself, and only make it easy for
end users who obtained the GPL code from somewhere else to link it
with your GPL-incompatible program, but you most definitely cannot do
what you're saying if you distribute the GPL with your
GPL-incompatible code or as a separate addon package for it. Why don't
you try actually READING the GPL for once? Linking is linking, and it
does not matter whether its static or dynamic.

BTW, although the whole issue has not been argued in court before, it
*has* convinced fairly large companies to back down and GPL their
whole programs, or move the GPL code to a separate program that's
independent, multiple time in out-of-court settlements. So don't just
take my word for it, do the research and stop babbling about things
you know nothing about.

Rich