[XviD-devel] StreamPlug and the xvid GPL license -

[Christoph Lampert]

Hi,

I'm not the lawyer round here, but I had to answer similar mails quite 
often already, so I'll do this as well: 

On Mon, 27 Dec 2004, Mathieu Germain wrote:
> 1) "Mere Aggregation"
> ...
> Would it be OK if we did this :
>  - Separate the Streamplug code from the xvid code and make them two 
> distinct dll (and we would of course provide the lib for that dll etc)
> -  Make it possible to download both our dll and the xvid dll at once
> I'm not sure about the second point. 
> ... I'm sure you will all see why this is a bit of a pain for us...

Yes, and sorry for putting it that way, but that is exactly the point.  
The GPL is targeted _against_ combination with proprietary products, not
in favor of it. So, the rules are very very strict. 
This is not to punish you or any other company, but intended to help Free 
Software. If your product is released under GPL, you can use XviD "almost 
as you like". If you products is not, then you are not allowed to combine 
it with XviD. 

Now, to the "legal" stuff: 
If you create one installer for your product and XviD, the result is a 
combined product of both, which isn't permitted by GPL. Not only the 
technical side (one DLL, two DLLs) matters, but also what the user sees. 

Also, "mere aggregation" means that your products can work _without_ 
XviD, and can XviD work without your products. They just come e.g. on the 
same CD, or from the same website. If that isn't the case (e.g. because 
your product relies on XviD to show MPEG-4), then it's not mere 
aggregation, no matter how any installers you use. 
We somehow accept it, if a program can _optionally_ use an already 
installed version of XviD, because then it's the users choice to download 
and install XviD, or to not do it. That when having two download links for 
your product and for XviD might be acceptable. 


> 2) Getting rid of the xvid parts we use
> We could also get rid of all that's xvid and reduce what we have to 
> MPEG4 specs without anything from xvid. 

Again, sorry to put it that way, but that is the best solution, because 
you shouldn't have used XviD from the very beginning. 

If you have questions on the GPL, read it, or go to www.fsf.org/licenses
for explanations, a FAQ etc. I must say that find it very unprofessional 
to use somebody else's copyrighted code without understanding the license 
attached to it. 


> If the first solution isn't suitable we'll do the other one. In the 
> meantime we are unsure about what to do with the current version of 
> streamplug, should we stop distributing it altogether?

Regarding GPL, you have to immediately stop distribution (in fact, you 
already had to stop when Radek first informed you, or, in real fact, you 
never had to right to distribute in first place).  
However, we won't hack your webserver if you don't act immediately, 
so maybe as an act of good will, I'll suggest the following (this is my 
personal oppinion, maybe the others can comment on it):

You said you would need two weeks for a "XviD"-free version of 
StreamPlug. Therefore, I'd say we'll don't check your website for the 
next two weeks, and only if two weeks from now XviD is still in the 
product, you have to stop the distribution. 
However, this is just for the free version. For business licenses, I'm 
pretty sure we all agree that you must not give out licenses of 
software which includes XviD code! Also, if you did so before, you should 
inform the customers that the product they purchased contains an illegal 
(yes, it's a break of copyright law) copy of XviD, so the license that 
they obtained from you is not enough for them to use the product, but they 
should get a "legalized" version from you. 

I know that this email may sound horrible, but this is how XviD is 
licensed, and we chose GPL for a reason, namely to prevent people to 
just take it and create proprietary solution on it. 
It's nice of you to help promote XviD, but the license situation for XviD 
is clear, and not changed by that. 

yours
Christoph