Are libav and x264 DFSG-free now?

[Jonas Smedegaard]

Hi Eugen, and others,

On 11-08-06 at 08:34pm, Eugen Dedu wrote:
> On 06/08/11 19:43, Reinhard Tartler wrote:
> >On Sa, Aug 06, 2011 at 14:41:58 (CEST), Eugen Dedu wrote:
> >>And now to my original question.  I have looked on Internet without 
> >>finding the answer.  I would like to know why libav (ffmpeg) and 
> >>x264 are now found in main while before they were not.  Why before 
> >>they were considered DFSG non-free, and now they are considered 
> >>DFSG-free?  Has anything changed in the "patents" they code?  Has 
> >>DSFG-freeness changed? Have ftp-master changed their mind?  More 
> >>generally, what has changed between when they were non-free and now?
> >
> >I can reaffirm that Debian distributes both libav as well as x264 
> >under the GPLv2, which is perfectly compliant with the DFSG. As for 
> >your question regarding patents, please a look at the Debian Patent 
> >FAQ:
> >
> >http://www.debian.org/reports/patent-faq
> >
> >There may or may not be soon a libav-extra package in debian that is 
> >distributed under GPLv3, but that's probably unrelated to your 
> >question.
> 
> I still do not understand.  You say that now they are compliant with 
> DFSG.  But my main question is: what has changed between a few years 
> ago when those codecs were NOT in main, and now when they ARE in main? 
> Shouldn't they have been in main since the beginning then?

The central thing changed, I believe, is the very release of above 
referenced document (notice its release date).

Be careful what you discuss on mailinglists regarding patents.  Please 
pretty please do read above document - especially the last sentence of 
the section named "How do I become aware of the existence of a patent?".

This might explain the odd silence about these changes to Debian.  
Please encourage others to read above general patent-faq rather and 
consider seriously the potential implications of discussing openly 
specific potentially patented material in Debian.


Regards,

 - Jonas

-- 
 * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
 * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

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