[XviD-devel] GPL and Windows

[James Briant]

Guys,

Whats the plot with a GPL license and windows media player codec? I'm sure
you've been asked this before, but in case you havent:

Windows codecs are loaded as dynamic linked libraries into windows
applications such as windows media player, or third party applications.
Consequently it is a violation of the GPL to release your software as .dll
and advocate its use as a windows codec. Frankly it wouldnt even be
acceptable to release it as an .exe that ran in a seperate process. The
codec is clearly something which cannot serve its purpose by itself and any
linking with it, even if you added a network wrapper and used it via
siberia, you would violate the GPL if any part of the system wasnt GPL'd
too.

If you wish to release your software for windows users (as a windows media
codec), you need to use the LPGL, not the GPL. As it is, anyone can write a
non-GPL application on windows and use your GPL'd codec because it would be
the *user* not the *author* who selects your codec.

Further, from the legal point of view (IANAL BTW) since you own the
copyright on Xvid, you have the right to offer your software under any
license you wish. One could argue, therefor, that since you have explicitly
developed your software for, and advocated its use with, windows media
player, that you are extending the licensing terms to include non-gpl'd
software such as wmp.

Can you clarify your intentions?

jamie